the opposing side
by Virg
Summary: AC 195, In the battle to save the Sanc Kindom, Duo self destructs his gundam. All the remaining Gundam pilots saw it and thought Duo had died. Two years later, Duo is seen by Une’s side, as her right hand man & adopted son. Has Duo changed sides?
1. Chapter 1

AC 195, In the battle to save the Sanc Kindom, Duo self destructs his gundam. All the remaining Gundam pilots saw it and thought Duo had died. But, almost two years later, Duo is seen by Une's side, as her right hand man and adopted son. Has Duo changed sides? Where do his loyalties really lie?

The opposing side 

By virg

Disclaimer: as u no, I don't own g.wing..

This is the first NON yaoi story ive ever written, so hopefully it's good.. but yeh, I'll figure that out from all ya'll reviews!

Also im changing the story a little, and as u no in the cartoon, the war goes for a year.. in MY story it goes for a few years!

**Ch1: Duo's death**

Heero sat in the kitchen on Howard's ship. The room rocked side to side as the waves of the ocean outside hit the sides of Howard's large ship. It was sunny and Heero sat himself at a table next to a window, using the sunlight that shone in to see his laptop as he typed up a report on his last mission. He stopped typing with one hand and used it to pick up the sandwich that lay on a plastic plate next to his laptop. Just as Heero bit into the ham and cheese sandwich, the loud rumbling of the Deathscythe landing rang through his ears.

"Baka."

About ten minutes later, Duo walked into the kitchen and looked around to see who was sitting down to eat lunch. When Duo spotted Heero, he smiled and headed straight for the table. He pulled out the chair opposite to the silent boy and sat. He crossed his arms on the table and plonked his head on them, letting out a huge sigh. "Ah, I'm beat.'

Heero kept typing, occasionally looking at the American teenager in front of him. Duo's cross lay next to Duo's head on the table, its long gold chain snaking across the table. Heero found Duo's faith, or lack of, fascinating. He took his fingers off the laptop and picked up the silver and gold cross with his right hand. He ran his thumb over the cold metal and pulled it closer to get a better look at it. Duo felt the chain pull and he lifted his head. Heero stopped pulling the cross when he realised that he was also pulling Duo towards him. "Sorry," Heero said as he let go of the cross.

"It's okay," Duo smiled, taking the cross and slipping it down his collar and into his shirt. Then Duo's eyes headed down to Heero's half-eaten sandwich. As usual, Duo's mind had jumped straight to the idea of food. "You gonna eat that?" Duo asked, his fingers creeping their way towards the sandwich.

"Yes," Heero said bluntly, not taking his eyes off the laptop. Duo's fingers stopped their walk towards Heero's sandwich.

"So you're gonna make me go and make my own?" Duo groaned.

"Yep."

"But I'm beat!"

"Then don't eat," Heero replied.

Duo groaned and turned his head to the side. He scratched the side of his face with his middle finger. "Hmm, what should I make?" Duo said to himself. He said it to get Heero's attention of the bird Duo was flipping at him. When he was satisfied that Heero had seen it, he stomped his way to the kitchen to make himself some food. Heero may not have smiled on the exterior, but he was smiling on the inside. He could've spared Duo some of his sandwich, but he couldn't resist pissing the braided boy off.

Shortly after, Duo returned with a plate with three sandwiches and a glass of milk. Heero continued to type, but the sight of Duo devouring the sandwiches, as if he hadn't seen food in a week, was more interesting than the laptop. Heero closed the laptop and picked up his own sandwich. Before taking a bite, he asked, "Do you believe in God?"

Duo stopped chewing for a second, a little taken back by the question. Heero had rarely started up a conversation with Duo, let alone started it up with such a personal question. He eventually swallowed his mouthful of ham and cheese. "Truthfully?" Duo asked, buying time to come up with an answer.

"Truthfully."

"Do you want the long answer, or straight to the point?" Duo asked, still trying to put together a coherent answer in his head. Heero shrugged in reply. "Okay," Duo sighed. "Knowing you, you probably want the short, straight to the point answer. So here goes," Duo said. "I absolutely believe in God," Duo explained. He lifted his sandwich to his lips and paused. "And I absolutely hate the fucker," 1 Duo added before taking a bite.

Heero was a little taken back by such a hateful response, but even though he was curious as to why Duo was so angry, he didn't press the matter any further.

"What makes you ask?" Duo asked with a mouthful of food.

"Your cross," Heero replied.

Duo finished eating his sandwich. He hadn't told any of the gundam pilots anything about his past. It wasn't that he didn't trust them; it was because it brought up too many bad, painful, and often repressed, memories. And so, Duo didn't elaborate with why he is the way he is. For a guy who's mouth never stops, Duo never actually talked about himself. "Oh," was all Duo could reply. He picked up his and Heero's empty plates and stood up. "I gotta go," Duo explained. He felt that he didn't have to explain to Heero where he was going, as Heero never does. But Duo felt that he had to explain that he wasn't coming back to the table after he takes the plates to the kitchen.

Heero nodded at Duo's explanation and Duo headed to the kitchen. Heero was felt concerned for Duo's sudden change of mood, but he had learnt not meddle in other people's business, so he let Duo do his own thing.

Duo walked towards his room that he shared with Heero. Howard didn't have many rooms left to offer to Duo, so he asked the two of them to share the one room- Even though that usually meant one of them would have a black eye by the end of the night. And that person was usually Duo. Duo walked in and saw that Heero had taken the single bed on the far side of the room, so Duo walked to the bed that sat along the wall next to the door. Howard had someone bring Duo's backpack to the little dorm while Duo got some lunch. Duo sat on his bed and surveyed the room. The walls were wooden with two portholes on the wall that Heero's bed was pressed up against. Duo hadn't turned the light on, but the beams of sunlight that poured that streamed in through the portholes were enough. The sunset outside was beautiful, with the clouds in shades of pinks and oranges. But Duo was too tired to care. Duo pushed his backpack off the bed and he watched it hit the floor next to the foot of his bed. He hadn't slept in two days, so the only thing on his mind was to sleep. And so, he lay down, hoping to get some well-deserved shut-eye. The next thing Duo knew, Heero was standing over him, shaking Duo's shoulder. It was now dark, and the lamp was on in the Heero's corner of the room. "Heero?" Duo said groggily as he sat up.

"We've got new orders. We're to meet the others in Norway in six hours. From there, we all go to the Sanc Kingdom. OZ troops are gathering in nearby countries for a massive invasion of the Sanc Kingdom tomorrow night."

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"Heero! Watch your left flank!" Quatre could be heard over the radio. Duo watched as Heero's Gundam turned to its left and start shooting mobile suits heading his way. Duo tried to hold off the massive amount of Leo suits from penetrating the east wall of the Sank Kingdom, but none of the Gundam Pilots predicted that there would be such a massive amount of mobile suits. Only three days earlier, Relena had announced that the Sanc Kingdom would become a pacifist nation, and that they would destroy all their weapons, as a demonstration of peace.

"Oh, when I get my hands on that girl!" Duo growled to himself as he sliced three suits with his scythe. Duo forgot that his radio was still on, and that the other pilots could hear him.

It wasn't until Wufei replied, that Duo realised. "Not if I get to her first, baka!" Wufei said half-jokingly. Even though Wufei preferred not to harm a woman, Relena's move pissed him off. "That girl is going to be the death of us all!"

"Let's hope not," Quatre replied.

The OZ mobile suits were closing in with such a force, that Duo felt he couldn't hold them off any longer. His suit had been knocked to the ground with the numerous laser blasts. "A little help here, guys!" Duo called over the radio. "I can't hold off this wall for much longer!"

"I got your ba-!" Trowa replied, but the transmission was cut off.

"Trowa!" Quatre called out. The Heavyarms was knocked to the ground. A swarm of Leo suits surrounded it and began firing on the gundam. Quatre was torn between defending the south wall and trying to save Trowa. Duo saw what was going on, and realised that no one else would be able to help Trowa if Quatre didn't do anything right away. Heero was up in the air, drawing a lot of the incoming fire power. Wufei was defending the north wall and seemed to be having a little trouble keeping the mobile suits at bay. Duo quickly thought up a strategy.

"Quatre! Help him!" Duo called. "I'll cover the south wall!"

Duo turned his attentions back to the mobile suits swarming around him. He barely heard Quatre say 'thanks' over the loud blasts that were aimed at him. Duo positioned his gundam so that it stood at the corner of the south and east walls. No one had expected such an attack on the capital city. With the majority of the Sanc Kingdom's weapons destroyed, if the gundams failed, it would be the end of the Sanc Kingdom. Duo didn't want to admit it, but it was a battle that they were losing. Troops had gotten into the city and the mobile suits were too much for the gundam pilots. Duo looked around to see if any of the pilots could help him out. Wufei and Heero both had more suits on them than they could handle. Quatre and Trowa together tried to defend the west wall, only barely managing to hold off the opposing suits.

Duo could feel his arms grow weary. They'd been at it for hours and he ran out of bullets more than an hour ago. All he had left to fight off the mobile suits was his sythe. The war was going to end one way or another, "So why not go out with a bang?" Duo asked himself. He didn't mean to say it to the other pilots, but what he said had caught the attentions of the other boys.

"Maxwell!" Wufei called. "Don't do anything stupid!"

"We all know that we can't win this. So if I'm going to be destroyed, then I'm going to do it in style!" Duo explained. He hit a dark metal panel on the side console with his fist and the metal panel slid across to reveal the self-destruct button.

"Hey!" Heero's voice could be heard over the radio. "This is no time to-" Duo turned off his radio before he could hear the rest of Heero's speech. Duo grabbed the heads of the two nearest Leo suits and crushed them with the Death scythe's hands. He then spun himself around, still holding the two damaged Leo suits, before propelling the two suits into other nearby enemy mobile suits.

"Now that I have your attention!" Duo said to himself. He grabbed the controls in front of him and the Death scythe propelled forward, away from the city, zooming its way through the swarm of mobile suits that were on their way to the Sanc Kingdom. Most of the suits around him followed, just as he had hoped. He sliced through them with his scythe until he got to the centre of the swarm. The OZ suits closed in on him like rabid dogs to a piece of raw meat. Duo took his hand off the controls and slid his right hand over to the consol where the self-destruct switch was. His finger hovered over the button for a second.

'I guess this is it.'

The remaining gundam pilots were forced to watch their friend die in an enormous fireball, taking out most of the enemy mobile suits with him.

**author's notes:** how bout that for a dramatic end? Well leme no watcha thought of it! Also I made this chapter short on purpose. So the rest will be a little longer than this k?

1 I stole this line from Vin Diesel in Pitch Black. Sorry if it pisses anybody off! Lol but it's such a good line!


	2. ch2: rebirth

Ch2: Rebirth 

AC 197

Heero unlocked the door to the apartment he had been using as a safe house. They'd been using this safe house slash apartment for so long, that Heero considered it as the closest thing to a home he'd ever had. He was sharing it with Trowa and Quatre, but they were out on missions, so he had the place to himself. He turned on the light and took off his jacket. The apartment had deep blue walls and the carpet was a cream colour. The apartment was extremely neat. Heero walked over to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. He looked around the apartment. The cream couches sat opposite each other, with a glass coffee table in between. Heero remembered the days when he had to share a safe house with Duo. Duo was the epitome of the typical American boy. The apartment would always be in a mess. Magazines would always be piled up on the coffee table, plates, empty glasses would sit on the floor next to the couch where Duo would sit to watch cartoons. It would drive Heero mad the way Duo lived his life. But at the same time, he was envious. Duo lived every day like it was his last, and he seemed to enjoy it that way. Duo would always find something funny in almost all situations, and Heero sometimes envied that quality.

It had been almost two years since the battle in the Sanc Kingdom. The gundams lost the battle that day, which also made it harder for the boys to look for Duo's body. The Sanc Kingdom had been taken over by OZ, and the boys were forced hide in a neighbouring country. Now, almost two years later, the war against OZ was still going. Heero didn't have a mission in weeks. He had no idea what J was upto, but he'd left it to Heero's to chose what was worth doing to stop OZ. He rarely received missions anymore. To pass the time, even though it had been years since the death of his friend, Heero sat at his laptop whenever he could and looked for any trace of Duo out there in the world, or outer space. But every day Heero's little glimmer of hope slowly degraded.

He walked over from the kitchen and towards the small dining table where his laptop lay waiting. He was a bout to sit down, but today something stopped him. He stood motionless, looking at the laptop. For some reason, he just couldn't bring himself to turn it on and begin his daily search for Duo. Every time he searched for Duo with no avail, it killed Heero that little bit more. 'Are Trowa and Quatre right?' Heero asked himself. 'Should I finally let Duo go?'

He was the only pilot that didn't accept Duo's death. The others had told him numerous times that Duo could never survive an explosion like that but he never gave up searching. He was convinced that Duo was still alive out there, until now. Heero felt bad at the thought that he had finally decided to abandoned his search for friend, even if it was two years later. He didn't want to accept that Duo had died, even though Heero saw it with his own eyes. He turned around and walked over to the couch. He turned on the T.V, and for the first time in possibly years, he relaxed in front of the T.V. A show called 'Dr. Bill' was on, as Heero watched for a couple minutes as he talked about family break-ups. Heero sighed and changed the channel.

The television flicked to a news broadcast on a conference held by Lady Une. Heero was about to change the channel, but something caught his eye. Heero put his glass down on the coffee table and sat on the floor. He shuffled on his knees to get closer to the television to get a better look at the person standing to Une's right. The young man looked so familiar, yet so different.

The young man looked about 18years old, with short brown hair. His brown bangs fell over his large violet eyes. The young man was looking straight ahead at the crowd in front of him, a proud smile on his face. Heero's eyes widened as soon as he realised who the young man was.

"Holy shit."

Heero grabbed a tape from the cabinet next to the T.V and pushed it into the v.c.r to record the broadcast. Even though it didn't show on the outside, a million thoughts ran through his mind. The guy on the T.V was Duo, or a very good likeness of Duo. Suddenly, the phone rang. Heero picked up the cordless phone from the coffee table.

"Yeah?"

"Heero!" Wufei called through the phone. "Turn to channel 23!" Wufei demanded. "You're not going to believe it!"

"I'm already watching it," Heero replied. He wanted to shout out 'Duo's alive!' but the stoic boy still felt uncomfortable with emotions, even though Duo always told him that if he's going to live according to your emotions, you have to express them.

"How is it possible?" Wufei asked. "That's Maxwell, right?"

Heero shuffled back to the T.V to get another good look. "It's him alright. Just without that stupid braid."

"Do you think he's been undercover all these years?" Wufei asked. "How could he be alive all this time and we didn't know it?" Wufei asked again.

Heero walked back to his laptop and started it up. "I don't know, but I'm going to check it out." Heero typed in his password and logged onto the internet to begin his search for the young man on the television.

"I'll come help. I'll be over there tomorrow night," Wufei explained before hanging up.

Heero hung up and began his search for Duo again. He felt extremely relieved to see Duo alive, but at the same time, he felt bad that Duo had been alive all this time and none of the pilots knew, or could find him. "How is that possible?" Heero asked himself.

He began his search in the OZ databases for the name Duo Maxwell, only to come up empty. The only reference to Duo Maxwell was that he was a gundam pilot KIA (killed in action) two years ago. There was a blurred picture of Duo exiting an airport two years ago. The photo looked like a shot from a security camera. It wasn't the clearest photo, but you could still make out that it was Duo. Heero sighed and began looking through the files of all the OZ soldiers. 'This is going to take a while,' he told himself. Heero made himself comfortable and began flicking through the enormous list of OZ personnel.

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"Heero!" Duo complained. "Would you put that thing away for two seconds so I can explain something to you!" Duo huffed. Heero felt Duo's eyes burning on him as he stopped typing on his laptop and turn his head to Duo. Once Duo was satisfied that Heero was looking at him, he continued talking. "Now, if I'm going to leave my Deathscythe here with Howard and you, I want lay down some ground rules. Firstly, no stealing parts from my baby, you got that?" Duo explained. Once Heero nodded, he proceeded on with the rest of the ground rules. "Okay, I think that just about covers it. I'll be back tomorrow," Duo explained. Heero instantly went back to typing on his laptop. Duo huffed at Heero's lack of verbalism. "Yeah, good bye to you too!" He grumbled as he turned on his heel and headed towards the doorway.

Heero watched from the corner of his eye as Duo's braid swung around, following the rest of Duo's body. He'd remembered how Duo constantly tries to get him to say things 'normal people would say', and something about Duo leaving for a mission made him want to wish Duo luck. Duo stopped typing and looked up from his laptop. Just as Duo reached for the door, Heero said in his usual stoic tone, "Be careful."

Duo paused and turned around to face Heero. He gave Heero a genuine smile. "Looks like there's some hope for you yet, Heero."

Heero opened his eyes and realised that he was just dreaming of the day when Duo was leaving for a mission with Hilde, three days before he self-destructed in the Sanc Kingdom.

He'd fallen asleep at the dining table. He lifted his head off his arms and looked at the laptop. He'd been up all night searching through OZ personnel files. So far, he was up to 'L' in the list, and it had taken him over 10 hours to get up to there. Heero walked to the kitchen and made himself a sandwich. He then sat back down and continued to search the Oz personnel records for Duo.

After about another hour, Heero paused his search at a page containing a young man by the name of "Dustin Matthews." His eyes widened at the find. Heero studied the profile before him. Under the white letters that spelled out 'Dustin Matthews', there was a picture of the infamous Duo Maxwell. Just like on the television, Duo's hair was now cropped short, but his bangs still covered those violet eyes. "Dustin Matthews. Eighteen years old. Adopted by Lady Une 12 years ago. Registered as OZ personnel eighteen months ago. Part time student at University of New York," Heero read aloud. Heero began searching for Dustin Maxwell in the University of New York's records. By the time Wufei arrived, Heero had already downloaded Dustin's uni timetable and had booked himself a ticket for New York.

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"And today we will also be brushing up on commercial law. Make sure you all pay attention because the exams are in three weeks.."

Heero walked into the lecture room and spotted Dustin Matthews instantly. The young American sat in the second last row, in baggy jeans and a black T-shirt. He leaned back in his chair, with his combat boots resting on the chair in front of him. He was writing furiously as the lecturer spoke. Heero walked up the wooden staircase and sat in the row behind his old friend. He sat a few seats to the left of the American boy and watched him for any signs that Duo recognised him, but the young American seemed to not notice Heero's entrance. Heero felt his chest ache when his best friend didn't even look up when he entered the room. Two years ago, Duo would've been the first to spot Heero walking into the room. To Heero, Duo was the closest thing he had to a best friend. They may not have shared everything about themselves to each other, Heero felt that they had a genuine friendship. Duo would annoy him, pester him, and yell at him if he even looked at the Deathscythe in a weird way. Even though he would never have admitted it two years ago, Heero missed Duo's antics and humour.

Heero had become good friends with Wufei and the other gundam pilots after Duo's apparent death, but Duo's humour and thirst for life seemed to emanate from him and it made Heero feel more human while Duo was around. It amazed Heero how Duo could be so full of life, with a happy-go-lucky nature, but at the same time, he was so willing and ready to die. Duo was full of contradictions. He never let his cross out of his sight, yet he wasn't religious. He had a thirst for life, yet was prepared to die at any moment. He spoke more than all the five pilots combined, and yet he never spoke of himself or about his past.

As Heero watched the now short haired, young man in front of him, Heero realised that Duo may not be the same person he was two years ago. For two years, Duo had been living under the guise of an OZ troop and son to Lady Une. And the fact that Duo never contacted the gundam pilots in the last two years opened the possibility that Duo really may not know who he really is. Heero never thought Duo to be that good an actor to stay successfully undercover for two years. Heero moved over a couple of seats to his right so that he was sitting directly behind Duo. He then tapped Duo on the shoulder. When the young man turned around and did not recognise Heero, Heero had to force himself to speak up as if he wasn't waiting for a reaction of recognition from Duo. "I forgot my book. Do you mind if I read off yours?" Heero asked as if he was a student in the same class as Duo.

The American boy smiled and nodded. He then tapped the seat to his left, ushering Heero to sit next to him. Heero let out a smile and climbed into the row in front of him and sat down next to Duo. He then opened the notebook he brought with him and began writing as the lecturer spoke. In the corner of his eye, Duo outstretched his hand in Heero's direction.

"Dustin Matthews."

Heero looked at the outstretched hand, and then took it, shaking it. "Heero Yuy," He introduced himself, looking at the smiling face in front of him. Heero searched Duo's eyes for any hint that he may recognise Heero, but when the young man returned to writing down his notes, Heero figured that Duo might have amnesia. Heero pretended like it didn't bother him and returned to writing in his notebook. After a minute or two, Heero noticed that Duo had stopped writing. Heero didn't dare look up in case Duo was looking at him. Heero's eyes began to wander to his right as he saw Duo's hand begin to draw on the side of the page. He couldn't help but stare as he saw a scythe being sketched out on the page. The rough outline soon turned into a detailed sketch.

Heero's eyes soon wandered up Duo's arm and to his face. Duo's violet eyes were fixed on the page in front of him, but he seemed to know that Heero was staring at him. "You seem familiar," Duo said, stopping his drawing. He looked at Heero, and began studying his face. "Have we met before?"

"Maybe in a past life.." Heero joked. "..Or around Uni.." Heero continued. Heero was amazed with himself when he let out a little smile in Duo's direction. Heero was a little hurt when Duo didn't react to his smile. After all the effort and arguments Duo and Heero had, the main ones were about how Heero wasn't 'human'.

Duo smiled back and continued drawing. Heero returned his attentions back to the lecturer. Pretty soon, he too was leaning back on his chair and paying absolutely no attention to the lecturer. After all, it wasn't even his class! Heero was never much of an artist, but he too found himself doodling on his page. He felt so sad that he was sitting next to someone whom he thought died before his eyes two years ago, and he couldn't even hug to him and tell him how glad he is to see him alive. Heero didn't even realise he was doodling a picture of the cross Duo usually wore, until Dustin Matthews pulled him out of his own world.

"So when's your next class?" Duo asked suddenly.

Heero stopped his doodling and looked up at Duo. At first he was a little embarrassed of Duo seeing his drawing, but when Duo didn't react to the picture, he figured that maybe Duo didn't wear it anymore. "This is my last class for the day," he replied. He'd intended on following Duo for the rest of the day to see where he lived, but of course, he couldn't tell Duo that.

"Me too," Duo replied. Then Duo did something that caught Heero off guard. "You wanna go play a game of basketball after this class?"

Heero nodded. He hoped that maybe with the extra time he could spend with Duo he could somehow jog Duo's memory. As soon as the lecture was over, Heero followed Duo to the parking lot. "I thought we were going to play basketball?" Heero commented. Just as he said this, Duo pulled a set of keys out of his backpack and opened the boot of his silver sports car. "Yeah, but I gotta get the basketball outta my car first," he explained. Duo threw his backpack in the boot and exchanged it with a basketball. He tilted his head towards the car as he faced Heero. "Stick your bag in the boot," Duo smiled. "I'll give you a lift home."

"Thanx," Heero replied. "But my motorbike is just there," Heero explained, pointing to the parking area reserved for motorbikes behind him.

"That's cool," Duo replied. Duo closed the boot and they walked to the university's basketball court. Heero looked at his own feet. He wanted to tell Duo who he was, and that Duo was a gundam pilot, just like him. Instead, his eyes moved to watch Duo's hands as he passed the ball from one hand to the other as they walked. "So, tell me about yourself, Heero."

Heero looked up at Duo's face. He couldn't tell Duo that he was a freedom fighter and one of the gundam pilots that are opposed to OZ, whom 'Dustin' now apparently worked for. If Duo didn't remember who Heero was, then Heero wasn't prepared to tell Duo everything just yet. "I'm 18, enjoy long walks on the beach.." Duo laughed at Heero's joke. "Nah, I go to uni, and live with two other friends, and we live like every day teenage boys," Heero explained. "You?"

Duo stopped playing with the basketball and carried it under his arm. "I only remember the last two years of my life," He explained. "My mom said I was in a horrific car accident. I woke up in the hospital almost two years ago and I couldn't remember anything. My mom was there at my bedside and told me about the accident."

"Do you remember anything now?" Heero asked. He prayed that Duo remembered some part of his life.

"Not really," he explained. "But I sometimes.." Duo drifted off.

"Sometimes.." Heero continued on. He wanted to hear what Duo had to say.

"Nah, it's stupid." Duo waved his hand as if to dismiss the issue.

"Come on, Maxwell. Tell me," Heero pushed on, acting as if he accidentally dropped Duo's real name. If Duo remembered anything, he wanted to hear about it.

"It's Matthews," Duo corrected. Heero watched as Duo seemed to pause, as if thinking of something. "Are you sure we haven't met Heero?"

"Don't change the subject," Heero replied. He didn't want to lie to Duo, but he wanted to know what Duo knew first, before telling him anything. If Duo worked for Oz, then Heero would be able to use that to infiltrate the corporation. "Sometimes.." Heero said to refresh Duo's memory.

"I cant believe I'm saying this," Duo ran his hand through is short cropped hair. "Sometimes I have dreams that I'm one of those gundam pilots. You know, the ones we always see on T.V. I know they're terrorists and all, but the dreams seem almost real. There's one dream I keep having where I'm fighting Oz mobile suits. Just before I self destructed, someone calls me Maxwell."

Heero was glad that Duo remembered something, even if it was of that day in the Sanc Kingdom. He wanted to confirm Duo's dream by telling him it was a real event, and not only a dream, but all he replied was, 'Hmm."

Duo stopped walking and Heero followed suit. "So, have we met before?" Duo asked. "Before my accident two years ago?" Duo added to make the question more specific.

Heero didn't want to lie to Duo, but he wasn't sure if Duo would be able to handle the truth just yet. "Yes," Heero replied anyway.

"Are we friends?" Duo asked. Before Heero could respond, the sound of a mobile phone could be heard. "Oh, that's me." Heero watched as the American boy dug his hand into his back pocket and pulled out the mobile. "Hi mom…yes.. just playing some basketball… with a new friend… soon.. okay, bye."

Duo hung up and slipped the mobile phone back into his pocket. "I gotta go," he said. "But I'll see you next week in class, right?" Duo asked.

"Right," Heero replied, even though he wasn't sure if he would even sneak into the class next week.

"Nice meeting you, Heero," Duo smiled before walking off to his car. As Heero watched Duo's body shrink in size as he walked through the parking lot, Heero could sense someone was standing directly behind him.

"He still seems as cocky as ever," A male voice commented over Heero's shoulder. Heero turned around to face the speaker. The Chinese boy was standing right behind Heero, and Heero had to take a step back to prevent head butting Wufei.

"Wufei! How did you..?"

"You told me you were going to New York, and Duo's new name, and that he goes to Uni here. So, I decided to check it out for myself," Wufei explained. Wufei turned his attentions to the sports car starting up in the parking lot. "That him?"

"Uh-huh," Heero replied. He then smacked Wufei on the shoulder. "Tag. You're it."

"Where are you staying?" Wufei asked. Heero slipped his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a crumpled business card of the hotel he was staying at. Wufei took it and looked at it. He then slipped the business card into the back pocket of his own jeans. "Alright. I'll meet you there later."

"You're gonna lose him if you don't leave now," Heero commented. Duo's sports car could be heard raging out of the uni parking lot at a faster speed than necessary.

Wufei smirked. "Doesn't matter," Wufei explained. "I shoved a tracking device under his car while you two were walking to the basketball courts."

"Nice," Heero exclaimed.

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Duo parked his convertible outside the front of the three-story mansion and strolled up to the house. Two OZ soldiers stood at the doorway, one of them opening the door for Duo as he entered the house. Duo nodded at the soldier as he passed him.

In the last two years, since he left the hospital, Duo couldn't remember spending more than a month in one house at a time. His mum, Lady Une, moved around a lot and he agreed to go with her. Une finally decided to label this New York mansion as 'home' whole Dustin was at university. For the first time in the last two years, Dustin had spent more than a month in the one house.

"Dustin? Is that you?" Une called from the dining room.

"Yes, ma!" He called back. He dropped his backpack next to the front door and walked to the dining room. His mother was seated at the head of a long rectangular mahogany dining table. The table was much too large for only two people to sit at, as it would usually be used to seat up to 50 people. Instead, the entire table had been cleared, except for the plates and cutlery that were set out for two people at the end of the table. The room was as large as a ballroom, and the walls were decorated with beautiful renaissance paintings. Dustin loved to stare at the paintings in the dining room. Looking at the painted angels and the golden clouds seemed to remind him of a church for some reason. He hadn't really been to church in the past two years, but he find a cross around his neck when he woke up in the hospital two years ago. Now, he hangs it from the rear view mirror in his car.

"Hi mom," Duo greeted as he walked into the room. The sounds of his footsteps echoed in the large dining room. He kissed his mother on the cheek before seating himself to her right, where his dinner was waiting for him.

"How was university today?" She asked, cutting her steak with her knife and fork.

Duo picked up his knife and fork and dug into the baked potatoes that were covered in gravy. "Not bad. Exams are in a month. I also met this guy today. I hadn't seen him in class before, but he said that we'd met before," Duo explained.

Lady Une kept her eyes on her food. "Hmm..What's his name?"

"Heero Yuy."

Une stopped cutting into her steak. Still holding onto her knife and fork, she rested her hands on either side of her plate and looked up at her son. "Heero Yuy?" She repeated. Une's fears finally became a reality.

"Yeah. Do you know him?" Duo asked. He watched his mother resume her dinner and pick up a little square piece of cut up steak with her fork.

"Dustin, I don't want you to talk to that boy ever again," She warned, still looking down at her plate. "He's.." She drifted off. Une dropped her fork and used that hand to wipe the tear forming in her eye.

Duo put down his utensils and places his left hand on his mother's. "He what?"

His mother looked back at him with a sad face. "He's the reason why I almost lost you, Dustin," She choked back the tears.

Duo had no idea what she was talking about. When he woke up in the hospital, he found Une sitting at his bedside, holding his hand. He couldn't remember who he was, or who Une was, even though he knew he'd seen her face before. She explained to him that she was his mother and that he'd been in a horrific car accident. As far as he'd been told, Dustin had been out partying one night with mates from high school. On his way home, he was hit by a car that ran a red light at monstrous speeds as he crossed an intersection, five minutes from his home. He had been in hospital for three months, in a coma, before he awoke.

After he arrived home, Une took him with her when she travelled with OZ, and that's when Dustin found that he'd somehow remembered how to fly a mobile suit. His mother had told him that she'd trained him to defend himself since he was a boy. Une enrolled him into OZ soon after that. Even though his mother had told him that he was a 'specially trained' boy, Dustin thought it was odd that he knew how to hack into high-tech computers and fly mobile suits when he was only 16. Now, at 18, he'd learnt to accept it as his life.

"Do you remember how I told you about the accident?" She continued. She watched as her son nodded. "There's something I left out. I probably should have told you from the beginning, but I though that it was all behind us now.." Une knew that one day the gundam pilots would find Duo Maxwell, but she'd grown to love this boy so much that she would do anything to keep him.

"Mom, what are you talking about?" Duo cut in. He wanted her to hurry up and get to the point.

"That boy, Heero Yuy, he was the reason you crashed," She explained. Her voice was croaky from crying. Dustin sat quietly. He wanted to hear the whole story first. He was too shocked to think that Heero could have made him crash. Heero seemed like a nice guy, so how could he be capable of almost killing him.

"You were enrolled into OZ, prior to your accident. Even though you were young, you had a unique talent for covert operations. You were out on a mission to follow one of the gundam pilots, Heero Yuy. He.." Une explained, but Duo cut her off before she could explain more.

"Heero's a gundam pilot?" Duo exclaimed. "What the?"

Une nodded at her son's question, then continued on with her explanation. "All I can gather is that he must've found out that you were following him, because he was chasing you through town at about 3am. You were the one who ran the red light and hit a car. Your car then wrapped around a tree, and you were in a coma for three months after that."

Duo got out of his chair and moved away from the table. This was a lot of information to take in and Dustin didn't know what to do but pace up and down the dining table. "Why didn't you tell me this before?" He asked, now turning to face his mother.

"I thought you would have been better off not knowing. I'm sorry, Dustin," She apologised. Dustin was about to say something but the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted the conversation.

A middle-aged man with sandy brown hair stood in the doorway. He donned a dark blue cape that draped over one shoulder. "Am I interrupting something?" The man asked, feeling uncomfortable for spoiling the family conversation. Dustin returned to his seat.

"No, It's alright, Sir." Une quickly wiped her eyes. "Please, join us for dinner," she offered, gesturing her hand out to the seat to her left, opposite Dustin's.

The man nodded and sat in his allocated seat. A butler entered the room with dinner for the new guest.

"So, Mr Kushrenada, aren't you meant to be on an L2 colony to lobby for the new weapons laws?" Dustin asked politely. He was still pissed off and confused at what his mother had just confessed, but in the presence of company, he wasn't about to express his feelings out loud.

Treize thanked the butler as he set the plate of steak and potatoes in front of him then turned to Dustin. "I see you've been watching the news, Dustin. No, that's been re-scheduled until next week," Treize explained. "So how's your university course going? I hear you're almost finished for the semester."

"Yeah, one more month, then I get my four months of holidays," Duo smiled.

Treise smiled back. "I was talking to your mother," Treize explained as he looked from Dustin, to Une, then back to Dustin again. "And how would you feel about coming out to the space colonies with me for a month or two while your mother is in Russia for peace talks?" The older man asked.

Duo thought about it for a while. Ever since Duo woke up in the hospital, Treize had been like a father to him. His mother had told him that his biological father had raised him alone, but that died from the plague when he was a boy. Since then, Une adopted him and that Treize had helped Une to look after him.

"Sure," Duo smiled. "I _was_ going to go holidaying on the Greek islands with a few uni mates, but.." He said sarcastically, giving a quick glance over at his mother.

"You know I told you that you couldn't go on that holiday," His mother said sternly. "I don't like that Gregg and Peter. They're a bad influence on you," She explained, using her fork to point to him.

Duo held his hands up defensively. "I know! I know!" he explained. "Outer space sounds fun also," Duo said, turning his attentions to Treize.

"Good. It's settled then," The man smiled before returning to his meal.

Outside the mansion, hidden in the large oak tree that stood just outside the mansion walls, sat Wufei, listening to every word.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Heero waited in his motel room for Wufei to arrive. It had been over 6 hours since Wufei headed off to follow Duo. While waiting for Wufei to report back, Heero realised that he hadn't told Trowa or Quatre, or even Dr J, about Duo being alive. He sat at his laptop and typed an email to the two gundam pilots, telling them the situation. He then sent a message to J, informing him that Duo was still alive and that he had no memory of who he was, or who Heero was. He then wrote that he's going to pursue the matter, to see if he could jog Duo's memory.

Heero stretched his arms over his head. It wasn't late yet, but the jet lag made him sleepy. He walked to the couch and lay down. Two years ago, he would've had to push a large pile of Duo's car magazines off the couch before he could lie on it. Without Duo as a housemate, the apartment he lived in with Quatre and Trowa was spick and span. Everything was in order. And even though Heero found himself to be a tidy person, he found the apartment a little too tidy without Duo causing a little chaos in the apartment. The Japanese boy, feeling the effects of the jet lag, closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

----------------------------

"Duo?"

The cell was dark, and Heero could just make out Duo sitting crossed legged on the cold concrete floor. His braid snaked on the floor behind him. Duo needed ice for his bruised jaw and bandages for the wound on his forehead. Blood was running down the side of his face. Heero wasn't in such good shaped either. His wrist was sprained and a cut on his thigh needed stiches. He and Duo had just been captured, beaten for information and were now waiting to be executed.

"Are you scared?"

Duo gave out one of the biggest smiles Heero had ever seen. At the time he'd only known Duo as the pilot of gundam 02, and that his name was Duo Maxwell. He'd only known Duo for a month of two, but he knew Duo enough to know that that smile Duo gave was the one he used when he really _was_ scared.

"Nah. I'm not scared." Duo's smile went away. "You?"

Heero fumbled with the large, thick handcuffs around his wrists. He was scared. He was more scared of what happens after death. He also didn't want to go into detail with Duo as to why he was scared. They'd only met a few months ago and Heero wasn't comfortable talking about things like that just yet. He knew Duo was watching him, waiting for an answer. When Heero didn't reply, Duo sighed and lay onto his back. Heero noticed that Duo was scratching the back of his head. No, it seemed like he was actually looking for something in that huge mane. "Argh! Where is it?" Duo grumbled to himself. Heero didn't say a word as he watched the lanky American boy.

After about a minute, Duo pulled out a pick from his braid. But the way that the handcuffs held his wrists together, Duo realised he couldn't undo his own lock, so he turned to Heero. "I'll have pick your handcuffs, then you do mine."

After the boys set themselves free, Duo and Heero waited on either side of the door, waiting for the guards to come and get them for their execution.

"Heero?" Duo whispered.

"Yeah?"

"If we don't get out of this.."

"We've been in worse situations before," Heero tried to raise Duo's hopes. Looking back, it disturbed Heero that Duo was the pessimistic one. At the time, they hadn't been in worse situations. It was the first time they'd been captured and about to be executed. Waiting to surprise the guards was their last stance and it felt more real then fighting an army of mobile suits.

"If we don't.." Duo repeated. "Do you think we'll go to heaven? After all the people we've killed, do you think we'll still get to heaven?"

"I thought you don't believe in all that?" Heero replied. 'Where is all this coming from?' Heero thought to himself. 'Maybe Duo really has given up.'

That day, their plan that had a one in a million chance of succeeding, actually succeeded. Duo was shot in the leg during the escape, but they managed to surprise the guards, make their way to a couple of mobile suits and get away from the OZ base in one piece.

------------------------------------------------

"Heero? Heero."

Heero opened his eyes and saw Wufei leaning over his slumbering body. "Wufei."

Wufei tossed a disk onto Heero's stomach. "I found out that Duo's heading into space in a month with Treize, while Une heads to Russia."

Heero rolled off the couch and stood up. "Anything else?"

Wufei sat down on the couch where Heero had been. "It looks like he really believes that Une is his mom. It's so weird. You think maybe they brainwashed him?"

Heero headed to his laptop and started it up so he could read the disk. "I don't know. I think he may have amnesia. If they brainwashed him, then they would've told him who we are and that we are the enemy. He didn't even know I was a gundam pilot when we met," Heero explained.

"Well he knows now," Wufei replied. "It's all on the disk. I got new orders just before I got here. I'm heading into space. Keep me updated on Duo and let me know when he come to the colonies," Wufei explained. Heero only replied with a 'Hn,' before Wufei left the motel. The laptop started up and before Heero had a chance to start up the disk, he saw that he'd received a new message from J.

_Thanks for the info. Will let G know. Don't concern yourself with it at the moment. New orders._

Underneath were the schematics to the new Lake Victoria base and the picture of an OZ general. It had taken years to rebuild and improve the base since Wufei blew half of it up.

"Assassinate General Toodon. Mission accepted."

-----------------------------------------------

Une woke up suddenly after hearing a thud sound. She looked around the room for a few seconds to try and remember where she was. She realised that she'd fallen asleep on the couch while reading a novel. She looked at the large grandfather clock across the room and saw that it was 4:37am. "Who would be up at this ungodly hour!" She said to herself. Une doggy-eared the page she was up to and placed the book on the coffee table in front of her. Then she stood up and adjusted her nightgown before heading down the large hallway to see what the sound was. The only guards that were on duty at his hour were outside, guarding the perimeter, and they were the best at what they do, so she wasn't too concerned with an intruder being the culprit for the noise.

She turned a corner and headed towards the left wing of the mansion, where the bedrooms were. She had a feeling she knew who was walking around the mansion at this time of night. Une got towards her son's bedroom and saw him wondering up and down the hallway in his black boxers and army green T-shirt. He looked as if he was searching for something.

"Dustin, honey," Une whispered. He was sleepwalking. And it wasn't the first time she'd seen him do it either.

"Hi mom," Dustin replied, and went back to looking into a large crystal vase.

"What are you looking for?"

"It's gone," Dustin replied. Now he'd moved from the vase to a painting on the other side of the hallway. He held the painting and tried to look behind it.

"What's gone?"

"My braid. Have you seen it, mom?"

It killed Une that Duo may be slowly regaining his memory. But Duo only seemed to remember about his braid or his previous life when he was asleep. She quietly ushered him towards his bed and promised that they'd look for it in the morning. She was glad that he never remembered his midnight escapades the next day. After getting Duo back into bed, she walked to her own master bedroom and straight to her videophone. She dialled a number she knew from memory and waited for an answer.

"Yes?" Treize mumbled. Une couldn't see him on the screen, so she guessed that he'd reached over from his bed and pressed the button to answer the phone.

"Sir, I'm deeply sorry for calling you at this hour," Une said sincerely. "But it's happened again."

Treize got up and looked at the videophone. Normally he would've covered up the fact that he was topless in bed, but Une was a close friend and he didn't feel uncomfortable with her seeing him a little dishevelled. "Lady, at this hour you need to be a little more specific," he mumbled. She watched him rub his eyes as he slowly woke up. Treize had been her closest friend for years, and she felt that if it weren't for military protocols, they would probably have dated one another.

"Sorry, Sir. It's Dustin. I found him sleep walking again."

Treize stopped rubbing his eyes and payed full attention at the picture of Lady Une on the screen. "Really? What was he doing this time? Trying to escape again? Or was he trying to contact the other gundam pilots with the toaster again?"

Une sighed. She'd become really fond of her newly adopted son. And admittedly, it was funny seeing him try to use the toaster like a videophone, but she still worried about him. "He.. He was looking for his braid."

Treize leaned closer to the video phone, as if her were telling a secret. "Lady, you knew when you adopted Duo that he may eventually regain his memories. And I remember warning you about it too," He explained. Treize was also fond of the American boy, and he too was afraid of what might happen if Duo remembered who he was. "But you insisted on caring for the boy anyway."

Une sighed again and took off her glasses. "I know. But when he finally woke up from his coma and didn't know who he was, I couldn't help myself," Une replied. "You know I've always wanted a son, Treize," she explained. "And I knew the risks, but I decided to lie to him anyway."

Treize's look saddened. "I know, I know. We've had this conversation so many times that I can't even count them on my two hands. How about I come and get Duo- I mean, your son tomorrow and take him to the new Lake Victoria base I'm inspecting tomorrow?"

Une smiled. "Thanks. That would be nice," She replied. "But how is that going to stop his old memories from coming back?"

"My dear Lady. It is not up to us whether Dustin remembers who he was or not. It's up to us to help him decide whose side he's going to be on when he _does_ remember," Treize replied. "The last thing I want is for Dustin to turn on us, and most importantly, you. I see the love you have for him and I know how much you want a family. I don't want any harm to come to you."

Une smiled again. "You know you're like a father to him. Are you really doing this to protect me, or do you really want to take him tomorrow so you can feel like a dad taking his son to work with him?"

Treize smiled in a goofy way that he only saved for her. "Can't it be both?" She watched as he lay down again, out of view of the camera on the videophone. "Goodnight, Lady." And with that, he hung up.

Une nodded to herself and walked over to her large four-poster bed. She lay her glasses on her bedside table and got into bed. She was tired, but she couldn't stop thinking back to the first day she saw Duo on that hospital bed.

She was there, at the Sanc Kingdom, that day when Duo self-destructed. No one that day expected any of the gundam pilots to self-destruct that day. He'd taken out half of the mobile suits surrounding the Deathscythe and damaged the rest. He'd been presumed dead until the medics had found him hours later. The OZ medics were really there to salvage the dead from the explosion and didn't expect to find anybody alive. Duo was barely alive, hanging on by a thread, when they found his mangled body among the wreckage.

The doctors said that the only way Duo could've survived an explosion like that was if he'd jumped from the cockpit of his gundam right before the self-destruct exploded. It was not uncommon for a gundam pilot to miraculously survive something like this. Heero Yuy was standing on the hatch just outside his cockpit when he self-destructed, and he survived. It often made Une wonder what sort of training those gundam pilots had to endure.

When Une got a call from the hospital near the newly conquered Sanc Kingdom, she rushed straight over there. She figured that she could get some valuable information from the braided boy. But when she got there, the last thing she expected was to feel guilty and pity for him. She saw him, covered in plaster casts, bandaged and he had at least three IV drips in his arm. He was no more than 16 and he had to go through more than any soldier twice his age would. She felt angry that some 'stupid middle-aged scientists would do this to a kid'.

No. It wasn't right. After seeing Duo in that state, she promised to put a stop to it all. Duo didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Une sat by his side for three days, holding his hand. She promised to herself that she would do anything to protect him and bring him up in a life of luxury. She stayed in one of those uncomfortable hospital chairs for three days, until Treize could pry her from it and convince her to go home. When she got home, she did a search on Duo's history, only to come up with nothing. He was a ghost to the world. It saddened her, deeply.

A few weeks later, the doctors told her that Duo's condition was getting better and that he may, one day, wake up from his coma. It was then that she told Treize that she wanted to adopt Duo. Of course, Treize was against it, and told here that there'd be no way she could convince a gundam pilot to stay with her. She was, after all, considered an enemy of the gundam pilots.

Une remembered the look in Duo's eyes when he first awoke from his coma. She was at his side, again, reading from one of her large novels. She didn't know he'd woken up at first, until she heard something that she never expected Duo to say. "Mom?" He said softly. "Are.. Are you my mom?" He repeated. His eyes were such a deep blue colour, that they sometimes looked purple, or violet. Most of his wounds had healed by then but he stilled winced in pain as he tried to sit up.

"No, no. Lie down," Une said, pushing him back onto the bed. Once she had Duo lying back down, she sat herself back in her horrid chair and held his hand. "Do you know who you are? Do you know where you are?"

Une was practically thrilled that Duo had no memory of who he or she was. She'd finally have a son to look after. But the first thing to go was that braid. She convinced Treize that adopting Duo was a good idea, despite his warnings and so she changed his name and told him he'd been in a car accident.

Une wiped a tear that ran down her cheek. She felt guilty for the selfish act she'd commited. In the last two years, she'd convinced herself that her acts were justified becsue she was giving Duo Maxwell a new chance at life. "Forgive me God, for I have sinned," Une said out loud. She rolled over and tried even harder to get to sleep. But it only made her mind race more. She kept worrying about what would happen if Duo remembered again. She didn't want to lose her chance at having a family of her own and she would do anything to protect that. Une knew what she had to do. She had to keep the rest of the gundam pilots, namely Heero, away from her son, at all costs.

**Author's notes: ** ive decided to make duo's personality more depressed, but that he only shows it when he's really down or around Heero. To every1 else, he's happy-go-lucky as can be!


	3. ch3: trust

**Ch3: Trust**

"Mr. Kushrenada! You're arrival is a lot earlier than we expected!"

Dustin watched as General Toodon's personal assistant greeted Treize. The man was about 25 or 26 with short black hair and rectangular glasses that made his eyes look magnified. He shook hands with Treize.

"Mr. Tilley," Treize greeted then returned to business. "Yes, our flight arrived earlier than expected," Treize replied. "I hope I haven't caught you off guard," He smiled.

The P.A took off his glasses and used the side of his jacket to clean them. "No, not at all. The general is just in another meeting at the moment, but he'll be out at any moment to see you and.." The P.A looked at Dustin, unsure if he was Treize's P.A, son, bodyguard, etc.

"Mr. Tilley," Treize then gestured his hand towards Dustin. "Dustin Matthews, Lady Une's son," He explained. Treize then gestured towards the general's P.A. "Dustin, this is Mr. Tilley." The P.A and Dustin then shook hands.

Dustin nodded to the other man as they shook hands. After they'd finished shaking hands, the young man returned his attentions to Treize. "Is there anything I can get for you while you wait, Mr. Treize?" Dustin felt pissed off that the P.A completely ignored him and only asked Treize what he wanted.

"No, No. Thank you," Treize replied. Before the P.A could say anything, Dustin cut in. "I'll have a coffee, thanks," Dustin smiled. "Black. Three sugars."

The P.A stared at Dustin with a shocked look. He locked eyes with Dustin, just to see if he was being serious. The P.A's don't get to drink the coffee; they have to get the coffee. And to Mr. Tilley, Dustin was stepping out of line.

Treize saw the shocked look on Mr. Tilley's face. He rolled his eyes and nodded to the P.A to approve of Dustin's order. Just before the P.A turned to head down the hallway, he looked back at Dustin for a last look to see if he really was serious. After receiving nothing but a satisfied smile from Dustin, the P.A left.

Treize and Dustin watched the shocked Mr. Tilley walk off. He then, still looking towards the P.A, he said to Dustin, "You don't drink coffee at this time of day."

Dustin smiled. He'd had a fondness for strong coffee first thing in the morning and late at night, especially when he had last minute assignments to finish. But he never felt the need for a caffeine hit during the day. "Yeah, but I hated how he practically kissed your feet when he asked you for coffee. Plus, I don't like being ignored. He thought I was your help, not your best friend's son."

Treize grunted to himself and smiled. "There's always one in every bunch," Treize replied. He put a hand on Dustin's shoulder. He found it surreal that he was practically family with one of the deadliest teenagers in the world. Duo Maxwell was not to be reckoned with. But Dustin Matthews, was a young OZ soldier, with skills that soldiers would kill for. Then again, Dustin Matthews was also not to be reckoned with. Amnesia or not, they were the same boy. No one but Une and Kushrenada knew who Dustin Matthew really was. To everybody else, Duo Maxwell died in that hospital bed when his brain shutdown due to 'severe head trauma'.

Dustin smiled at Treize's comment. He turned to look out the large windows that looked out onto the landing strip for the large mobile suit carriers. Zechs Marquise was also due to arrive soon to talk to Treize. He watched as about a dozen soldiers walked two by two across the landing strip.

"Come, let's go see what's keeping General Toodon," Treize said.

They began walking in the same direction that the P.A headed in. "Yeah, I want to see what's taking so long for my coffee to come," Dustin joked.

"Be nice," Treize said a little sterner than his usual tone, but not stern enough to be considered as disciplinary. "He could just be held up. We are early, after all."

The two made it to the conference room at the end of the hall. The doors were closed and the secretary wasn't at her desk. Dustin must've known that Treize was wondering where the secretary had gone. "Maybe she's at lunch?" He shrugged.

Treize let out a 'Hmm,' and headed towards the large double doors to the conference room. Just as Treize reached for the handle, Dustin heard a noise coming from the other side of the door. He quickly put his hand on Treize's outstretched arm. Treize stopped and looked at the American boy, who by now, had reached for his gun.

Dustin whispered, "Something doesn't seem right." Treize backed away from the door and Dustin took his place in front of the door. Treize felt completely safe with an ex-gundam pilot playing bodyguard, even if Dustin didn't remember where his skills came from.

Dustin held his gun in his right hand, in front of his chest, just in case. With his left hand, he quietly and slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open an inch. He carefully looked inside the room and saw that it was empty. The large conference table was deserted and the room was quiet. He opened the door all the way and walked in. As he walked in, with Treize behind, he could see that in the far corner of the room were two figures. Dustin's instincts were right.

At first, all he saw was a young soldier with a gun, with a silencer attached, pointing to the general's head. The general was seated on a large, leather desk chair. His hands were holding onto the arms of the desk chair so hard that Dustin was sure that he'd get a cramp. On the floor beside the chair was the body of Mr. Tilley, with a single gunshot wound to the head. The soldier noticed someone entering the room and quickly grabbed another gun from his right holster. The assassin now had one gun pointed at the general, and one at Dustin and Treize.

It was only now that Dustin realised who the young assassin was. "Heero?" Dustin said in shock. He pointed his gun pointed at Heero.

Heero's icy face melted at the sight of his long lost friend. "What are you doing here?" Heero asked in his monotone voice. He wasn't going to fail his mission. Not for anyone. He never failed. He won't fail. But this time, for the first time as a gundam pilot, Heero's priorities had shifted away from the designated mission.

Dustin was flabbergasted at Heero's question. When he first met Heero at the university, Heero seemed to be a good guy. But this time he knew that Heero was responsible for his car accident two years ago. But he was confused, and something inside his mind refused to believe that Heero was capable of such act. But Dustin knew that his mother loved him, and that she would never lie about something like that. In sum, Dustin didn't know what to believe just yet. "What am _I_ doing here? What are _you_ doing here!" Just as Dustin had said it, he realised that Heero _was_ a gundam pilot. And gundam pilots were known for sneaking up on OZ bases.

Heeros icy glare returned. "I'm here to assassinate the general, what does it look like!"

"But why?" Dustin asked. His gun was still pointed at Heero, but he found that his hand kept lowering itself slightly, and he had to make a conscious effort to keep it in Heero's direction. But even though Heero had a gun to the general's head and another in his direction, Dustin didn't feel threatened at all. He had an oddly safe feeling, as if he knew deep down, that Heero could never shoot him. This only made Dustin more confused, because according to his mother, Heero was the one who was chasing after him right when he'd had his car accident.

"I got orders," Heero replied. Heero then lowered the gun that was pointed in Dustin's direction. But the other gun was still pointed at the general's head. "Just like you used to, Duo."

Dustin couldn't comprehend what Heero had said. Firstly, he'd said that he used to receive orders. 'I receive orders from OZ all the time,' Dustin thought to himself. 'Is that what Heero meant? And why did he call me Duo? It's not like a gundam pilot to forget someone's name so easily. Wait. How should I know what a gundam pilot should and shouldn't be doing?' So deep in thought, Dustin didn't realise that he too, was lowering his gun. He saw Heero show a small smile.

"Yeah, Duo," was all Heero said.

"What are you talking about?" Dustin asked. He raised his gun towards Heero again. "You called me 'Maxwell' the other day as well. My name's Dustin Matthews. I don't know who you think I am, but you must be mistaking me for someone else."

Heero didn't reply. Rather, he looked to Treize and asked, "Did you brainwash him? Or has he just got amnesia?"

Dustin then waved his hands around in frustration. "Whoah! Time out! What the hell is going on around here? Brainwashed?" Dustin then turned to Treize. "What's he talking about!"

Treize ignored Dustin and stared calmly at Heero. "Your friend died two years ago." Treize then put a hand on Dustin's shoulder. "Dustin is not the boy, Duo Maxwell, that you're searching for. Do not confuse him for your dead friend."

Dustin shook his shoulder so that Treize would remove his hand. "Hold on. _Duo Maxwell_! The only gundam pilot that OZ has killed?" Dustin asked the two men. The room was silent for a minute. Dustin hated being out of the loop.

Then, Heero answered. "He's not dead."

This only made Dustin more confused. He'd heard very briefly that only one gundam pilot had ever been killed and that his name was Duo Maxwell; master thief and expert at stealth. But that was all he knew. He'd never seen a picture of the boy. 'But I'm going to look into it once this mess is over!' Dustin said to himself.

Dustin had almost forgotten about the poor general who, until now, had remained silent. "What are you waiting for? Shoot him!"

Dustin raised his gun again but it was too late. Within seconds, Heero had shot the general in the forehead and then turned around and ran towards the large open window two metres behind him. Dustin was hesitant about shooting at Heero. He didn't know all the details, so by the time he decided to aim for Heero's legs, Heero had already dived head-first out of the third storey window.

Heero felt the wind through his hair as he dived head first for the ground below. It reminded him of the day he was rescued by Duo almost three years ago. Back then, when he jumped out of the 30th storey window, he had no intention of opening his parachute.

Heero flipped himself mid air so that his back was towards the ground. From the back of his jeans he grabbed a device that looked like a gun with an arrowhead where the bullets would usually come out of. He aimed it up at the wall above the window he'd just jumped out of and fired.

Treize and Dustin ran across the room to the window. The anchor that Heero shot narrowly missed Dustin and Treize and hit the wall just above the window frame. The anchor was connected to a wire, which was connected to the gun that Heero was still holding onto. Dustin and Treize watched as Heero swung down onto the landing strip below.

----------------------------------

"What the fuck is goin' on around here?" Dustin yelled at himself.

Treize was giving a statement to the Military Police. Dustin waited outside of the conference room-turned crime scene. He'd already given his statement and decided that he didn't want to be in that room any longer. It's not like he hadn't seen a dead body before, it was the conversations that occurred in that room that disturbed Dustin. He had no idea what to think. Heero was looking for the dead gundam pilot, Duo Maxwell. Treize said that Heero's just confusing himself and that Dustin just looks like Duo.

"I gotta get outa here!" Dustin said to himself. But he honestly didn't know where to go. He was stuck on a base in Africa, with all his friends, family and his computer miles away in America. Dustin sighed and leaned against the wall in the hallway. 'I need a computer. I have to look up this Duo Maxwell kid,' Dustin said to himself. He remembered passing a computer room on his way to the conference room with Treize. However, as Dustin was about to make his way there, Treize had exited the conference room and saw Dustin about to walk off.

"Dustin, where are you going?" Treize asked casually.

Dustin was pissed off. After all the shit that went on in that conference room, that's all he could ask! Dustin turned around and glared at Treize. "What was Heero talking about in there?" He asked sternly.

Treize breathed in deeply and took his time exhaling. Dustin hated that. He wanted an answer as quick as possible, and Treize was taking his time. It only made Dustin madder. "You see, two years ago, in the battle for the Sanc Kingdom- just after your accident, gundam pilot zero two self destructed. His body was recovered, but he was already dead when we found him. Earlier in that year, Heero Yuy had survived the blast when he self-destructed his gundam. I suppose he figured that Duo Maxwell would also survive a blast like that. The poor boy has confused you with his old friend. Don't believe what Heero tells you," Treize explained.

Dustin leaned against the wall again. What Treize had said _did_ make sense, but for some reason, Dustin also believed Heero. His mother had said that Heero was the reason for his car accident, but Heero seemed almost nice at the university. Why would he be so friendly if he were trying to kill him. If Heero really tried to kill Dustin two years ago, why wasn't he trying to complete his mission now? Something was not right. Someone wasn't telling the truth, and Dustin needed to know whom.

Treize looked at the young American in front of him. Dustin looked mentally exhausted. He watched as Dustin slid down the wall and sat on the floor. The confrontation with Heero was close, but Treize was convinced that Dustin still believed that he was an adopted son of Lady Une. But measures were needed to make sure Dustin Matthews didn't find out who Duo Maxwell really was.

Dustin looked up at Treize Kushrenada. "Treize, I think it's best if I headed home."

Treize nodded and helped Dustin to his feet. He then called over a guard to escort Dustin to the airport for the next flight to New York. Dustin thanked Treize for letting him go home, and then walked down the hallway with the guard.

When Treize was satisfied that Duo wasn't within earshot anymore, he reached for his mobile phone. He dialled a number from memory and waited for the person on other end to pick up.

"It's me. I want all records of Duo Maxwell, gundam pilot zero two, deleted immediately. I want no trace that Duo Maxwell ever existed."

----------------------------------------

AC 195

Heero sat at the dining table and typed up his report. He'd been away for two weeks on his mission in Australia and it felt good to be back at the safe house slash apartment slash home. At the time, only he and Duo lived at the apartment. Trowa and Quatre hadn't moved in until Duo had supposedly died, to comfort and keep an eye on Heero, who took Duo's death the worst. He'd lost his first friend, and the others were afraid that Heero might harm himself in his grief.

The apartment was in Califronia- Duo's choice. Heero agreed to move into whichever place Duo wanted because Heero was comfortable living with the bare essentials. The other luxuries, such as the wide screen TV, large beds and proper furniture, were Duo's choice.

Heero finished his report and emailed it through a secure line to J. While he was writing the report he'd zoned out all the surrounding noises in the room. He'd become an expert at it, especially after living with Duo. Duo was prone to loud music, constantly talking and occasionally, loud eating and having the T.V turned up louder than needed. Heero closed his laptop and stretched backwards, lifting his arms up in the air. The apartment was silent, save for the sounds of the rain outside. For a few seconds he thought Duo was still out on another mission, but the he remembered Duo returning only hours earlier. He couldn't hear the TV, or radio or even Duo's voice. Heero stood up from his spot at the small dining table and walked around the apartment. He checked the kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms, but no Duo. He checked the lounge room, still no Duo.

It had been only hours since Duo had just come back from a mission that took him a month to complete. The war had been going on for a year now, with no sign of ending. There was still a lot that needed to be done to attain peace and the gundam boys were doing everything they could.

Heero took a quick look in the living room and saw that it was empty. The TV was off and Duo's magazines were still in a neat pile on the coffee table. Heero remembered cleaning up the apartment and tidying Duo's mess just before he went on his mission two weeks ago. At the time, Duo was already on another mission. For the magazines to still be in their neat pile and the apartment silent as a mouse, Heero knew something was wrong with Duo.

Heero looked to the left of the room and saw that the sliding door was wide open. He could see Duo outside on the balcony. He was sitting on a fold-up chair. The rain was coming down hard and Duo didn't seem to mind it. Heero stood at the doorway to the balcony and watched Duo. His eyes were closed and his head was leaning back. Duo seemed to be relaxed letting the rain fall on his face and body. Heero felt cold just standing at the door. He figured Duo must have been freezing, sitting out there.

"Duo?" Heero put one hand on the doorframe and waited for Duo to respond. It looked like Duo might've been asleep, for he didn't move. Then after a minute, Duo opened his eyes and looked at Heero.

Duo's bangs were plastered to his forehead and his soaked priest clothes were stuck to his body. "Heero," Duo said. His voice was course, as if he were about to cry. "Is it selfish that I want to quit being a gundam pilot?"

Heero was taken back by Duo's question. Duo seemed to only show his darker, more depressed side to Heero, and Heero felt honoured in a way. He finally had a best friend who confided in him and it made him feel good, loved and appreciated. Heero too had felt that he wanted to quit, but then he'd realise that the world needed him more, and it'd make him feel proud to be a gundam pilot. Heero realised that he probably should have said all that to Duo, but instead he said, "What happened on that mission?"

Duo leaned his head back and let the rain wash his face. "Kids dying and soldiers being so willing to die for a cause that they think is right," Duo said. His voice was filled with sadness and disappointment. "It's not something someone our age should see… ever."

Heero didn't know what to do. He wasn't used to comforting people, and he was the last person one would go to unless they wanted something blown up. Heero contemplated for a few seconds on what he should do.

Duo watched as Heero walked back into the apartment, leaving him alone on the balcony. "Figures," Duo said to himself, thinking that he'd just been abandoned. They'd been friends for almost a year now. Duo knew Heero wasn't the best person to talk to after seeing some little kids being killed by OZ soldiers. But for some reason, Duo felt like he could say anything to Heero. It was as if Heero was the only one who would understand and not judge Duo by the way he's happy-go-lucky one moment, then wanting to be left alone at the next.

To Duo's surprise, Heero returned within a minute. Duo gave a small smile when he saw what Heero was holding. A bath towel. Heero held out the large dark blue towel, waiting for Duo. "It's cold outside," Heero said in his usual stoic voice. He lightly shook the towel to emphasise his point.

Duo nodded. He stood and shook his head to shake the water out of his bangs, his braid swinging from side to side like a dog's tail when he shakes water from his fur. Duo walked up to Heero and let Heero wrap the towel around him. "Thanks," Duo smiled. Heero moved aside to let Duo into the apartment. "Looks like you're human after all." Duo joked. He stepped into the apartment and began rubbing the towel through his soaking bangs.

"With you acting like a mindless automaton today, shouldn't I then be the human one?" Heero replied.

His voice was at its usual monotone, but the way that Heero had said it, made Duo feel guilty for teasing Heero for not being human. Duo had teased him on many occasions, but only now, did he feel sorry for what he'd said. Duo stopped wiping himself down and wrapped the towel around his shoulders. He looked at Heero, searching in Heero's eyes for.. something. "Heero, I'm sorry. Of course you're human. I didn't mean fo-" Duo apologised, but was cut off by Heero.

"I know what you meant. It's okay," Heero replied in his usual tone. Heero stopped looking at Duo, and looked around the room. It was as if he was thinking of what to do next. "Go have a shower and put on some dry clothes. I'll make us some dinner."

----------------------------------------------------

Dustin brooded in his seat on the flight home. He was all alone on the flight, save for a few colonels who were also on their way to America. Dustin sat in the far right corner. He didn't want to talk to anyone. He just wanted to think.

'Think Dustin. THINK! You got your old memories in there somewhere! You just have to think!' Dustin thought to himself. 'Now, the last thing you remember is waking up in the hospital. Mum was next to you. Now, what happened before that!" Dustin grabbed at his hair in frustration. 'Think, dumb ass! Think!'

Dustin huffed and sunk lower in his chair. 'It's no use!' He thought. 'What I really need is a computer. Even better, my laptop. It's a pity I left it at home. When I get home, so help me God, I'm going to find out who the fuck Duo Maxwell is, and who I am. Then I'll know for sure that we're not the same guy.'

When Duo finally got home, he was glad to see that he was home alone. Well, the guards were still there, but Lady Une had gone to yet another peace conference in the heart of New York City. Dustin smiled and practically ran to his laptop in his large bedroom. He started it up and began his search of Duo Maxwell. His first try was through the OZ database.

'Surely there has to be something on Duo in here.'

But funnily enough, there was no record of Duo Maxwell. Not a single reference to him.

'What? That's not possible! He's a gundam pilot! There's not even a single line in here that says that!'

Dustin did a search on his own name. There was his photo he had taken after he was released from hospital, followed by his profile.

_Dustin Matthews:_

_Age: 18  
D.O.B: unknown  
Military status: special ops  
Info: Father: Owen Matthews. Mother: unknown. Father died in the plague at L2 in AC185. Adopted by Lady Une in AC186. Entered in experimental training program for young teens. Reached ranking of Special Ops in AC194. Car accident in AC195. Diagnosed with amnesia. Part time student at University of New York._

"You've got to be shitting me!" Duo said to himself. "That's it!" He ran a check through the World Nations database and found nothing. Through the freedom of information act, he should have been able to find something on himself, but he was yet again, left with nothing but the exact same profile that was found in the OZ database.

"Something's not right." Duo said out loud. "Who would want to stop me, or anybody else from finding out who I am? Am I really Duo Maxwell then?" Dustin stood from his laptop and put his hands on his head and sighed. "Maybe I'm just paranoid."

Dustin left his laptop and paced around the room. He stared at the laptop, which was sitting on his large mahogany desk. "I need to contact Heero," Dustin smiled to himself. He felt like it had been the best idea he'd had all day. He quickly sat himself back down at his desk and placed his fingers on the keyboard. But then he stopped. "I don't know how to get in touch with him! Where do I begin!"


	4. ch4: answers

CH4: answers 

Dustin, after realising that he had no way of contacting Heero, gave up and stood from his laptop. He looked around his bedroom at all the photos he had stuck onto his walls. Almost all of them were taken in the last two years. He'd never really questioned it before. Then it clicked.

'Why aren't there any photos of me before the crash?'

Not one photo. It was as if he didn't exist. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before! Dustin left his room and checked all the photos in the hallway. He knew there were none of him from before the crash, but he checked anyway. The New York mansion had been considered as home for the last two years while he was in uni. But he couldn't understand why Une brought over all their belongings to the new home, and not bring any old photos?

'Why haven't I ever noticed it before?'

Dustin knew there wouldn't be any photos of him as a child, because that was before Une adopted him. But then again, she'd adopted him ten years ago! Surely there would be more photos!

Dustin walked to his mother's room. Everyone knows that a mother keeps the best photos in her room. He checked out all the photos. There were ones of his trip to the snow with Une and Treize. One of he and Zechs when they were at the OZ thanks-giving bash last year. One of he and his mother that he gave Une for mother's day. But there was, yet again, nothing from before the crash.

'What the _hell_ is going on around here!'

Dustin went back to his room and grabbed his car keys and his wallet. He needed to get away from all of it. 'I need to think'.

--------------------------------------

"Heero!"

Heero looked up from the T.V towards the front door. It was Quatre and Trowa returning home from their last mission. "Hey," he greeted his roommates.

Quatre and Trowa dropped their bags next to the front door. "We came as soon as we could!" Quatre said as he sat down on the couch next to Heero. "Have you got any more news on Duo?"

Heero filled in the two pilots on how Heero met Duo at the university, then how Wufei recorded the conversations Duo had at his mansion home. The Heero told them of how he tried to reach Duo when he was in Africa.

"So he's go amnesia then?" Trowa asked. "Do you know for certain?"

"No. But by the way he was reacting, it's a high possibility. Duo had no idea what was going on when I called him by name."

Quatre shook his head. "After all this time, Duo was alive. We should never have given up looking for him! Oh! I feel so horrible!"

Heero felt pissed off because _he_ hadn't given up- the others did! Quatre and Trowa were the first ones to accept Duo's death and it made Heero angry. It made him wonder if he should have even told them that Duo was alive. He wanted them to feel guilty. When they all thought they saw Duo die, all the boys mourned for Duo's death. They even had a memorial service for him. Heero tightened his fist in anger. He wanted Trowa and Quatre to feel guilty for giving up on Duo.

At the memorial service, Heero remembered looking across the room and saw Hilde breakdown. Hilde dropped to her knees and cried. Deep down, Heero wanted to be by her side and comfort her. Duo confided in Heero only days earlier about how he liked Hilde. Duo had considered Heero and Hilde his best friends, and it made Heero want to comfort Hilde; because she felt Duo's lost the same as how Heero had.

Then it occurred to him. "Oh my God! Hilde!" Heero grumbled to himself and shot off the couch. Heero had forgotten to tell Hilde that Duo was alive.

"Heero?" Quatre said, unsure of what was going on.

Heero ignored Quatre. He ran out of the room, grumbling to himself. "Argh! I'm so stupid!" He walked into his bedroom and opened his laptop. As soon as it started up, he sent an email off to Hilde, letting her know everything that had happened. After they all thought Duo had died, Heero slowly started to lose touch with Hilde. They all mourned in their own way. Heero and Hilde only emailed each other when there was any news about Duo. The last time he heard from Hilde was almost a year ago. She had met Howard at the memorial service and the two of them had started salvaging the remains of the Deathscythe. In her last email she had asked Heero if he wanted to help re-construct Duo's gundam. Heero had told her he didn't want to. In reality, it was too painful to see the Deathscythe. It would have brought back all those memories of when he saw the Deathscythe self-destruct. He never heard anything from Hilde since.

--------------------------------------------

Dustin got into his convertible and drove to the shopping centre near by. It was where he and his uni mates would go hang out when they had free time. He parked his car and started walking down the long strip of shops.

'What am I going to do!' Dustin thought to himself. 'There is definitely something fishy going on here! But I just don't know what!'

Dustin walked over to the hot dog stand nearby and bought a pepsi.

'Am I really this Duo guy? Why cant I remember! Could I have been living two lives for the last ten years? Is it possible that I am Dustin Matthews, but also have secretly been a gundam pilot?'

As Dustin entertained himself with the idea that he could have been a gundam pilot behind his mom's back, he saw a familiar girl about 20 metres ahead. 'Where do I know her from?'

-----------------------------------------------

AC 195: Australia: two months before Duo's death

"Can you pass me the laser sight?" Duo asked, pointing to the box of equipment next to Hilde.

Hilde nodded and passed it to Duo. Duo was assembling his sniper rifle. It was night. Duo and Hilde were perched on the rooftop of a building, adjacent to a cheap motel. Duo had received news that one of Howard's mechanics was sending information about the gundam pilots to OZ. When Howard confronted the mechanic about it, he fled to Australia. Duo and Hilde tracked him down and were now waiting for him.

"You know, I have relatives here in Melbourne," Hilde said.

"Really?" Duo continued to assemble the rifle.

"If we have time, I'd really like to visit them," She explained.

"Yeah, we should have time," Duo replied and smiled. Duo was jealous in a way that Hilde actually had a family to go back to. He wasn't going to stop Hilde from seeing them.

Duo had told Hilde about his past, so she felt a little bad for Duo when she mentioned her family. "I want you to meet them," she smiled. "They're the nicest people. You'll love them!"

Duo nodded. "That'd be nice." Duo set up the tripod and set the sniper rifle on top. "But isn't a little early for me to be meeting your family?" Duo joked. "We're not even engaged yet!"

Hilde smiled. Deep down, Hilde wanted to date Duo, and they'd had that discussion before. And Duo had given the same answer each time. The missions come first. Duo didn't want to start officially dating Hilde until the war was over. He felt that not having a family or loved ones during the war was an advantage, where the enemy couldn't hurt the ones he loved in an attempt to get to him.

"Sorry," Duo apologised, realising what he'd said. He sat down next to Hilde and cupped her face. Even in the dark, Duo could see the hurt in Hilde's eyes. "I know we've had this discussion before. You don't know how much I want to hold you, but while the war is on, I can't risk your life like that." Duo explained.

Hilde let out a weak smile. "I know."

Duo leaned forward and kissed Hilde on the forehead. He then got up and checked to see if the rogue mechanic was coming. "How about after this, I'll shout you an ice cream?" Duo offered. He looked over his shoulder at Hilde and smiled. He knew she was a sucker for ice cream. Hilde smiled and nodded in response.

Duo turned back to the cheap hotel in time to see the rogue mechanic coming from around the corner. "He's here."

Hilde quickly got to her feet and walked over to the edge of the rooftop to get a better view. Duo looked through the eyepiece of the sniper rifle and aimed at the mechanic's head. Hilde closed her eyes as Duo pulled the trigger.

When Hilde opened her eyes, the rogue mechanic was on the ground. The street was deserted, and his death went unnoticed. "It just seems so.. cold," Hilde said with sadness.

"It is. But this is war." Duo explained.

---------------------------------------------------

Dustin looked at the raven haired girl headed towards him. 'She's cute,' he thought to himself. 'She's looking right at me!' Dustin suddenly felt really self conscious because this girl was staring at him. As she got closer to him, Dustin realised that she was looking at him strangely. Dustin felt that she seemed familiar, but he couldn't remember where.

The two continued to look at each other until they were standing right in front of each other. Dustin didn't know what to make of the girl standing in front of him. The look on her face was.. unreadable.

"Oh my God!" She said in shock. Now up close she had a better look at the young man standing before her. "Duo?" She asked.

Dustin was a little taken back as he saw that her eyes began to water. She was the second person to call him by that name, and it only made him more confused. He stood silently and in shock as the girl put her hand on Dustin's arm. "You're.. You're real!" She sobbed as she lunged forward and hugged Dustin tightly.

"Whoa! Whoa!" He said, trying to get the crying girl to get off him. "This is just some misunderstanding!" Dustin said, trying to gently remove the girl from him.

"Duo?" She asked again, unsure of what was going on. "Heero didn't tell me you were alive!" She said, but when she didn't get any recognition from Duo, she asked, "Don't you remember me, Duo? It's me, Hilde!" She explained.

Dustin shrugged at Hilde. "Sorry Hilde, but I don't know who you are," he explained. "Although honestly, you're not the first one to call me by that name," Dustin explained. 'Argh! Why am I telling her this?'

"That's because you _are_ Duo Maxwell! Don't you remember? Where have you been for these last two years! We all thought you died!"

"No, I don't remember that. And I'm very much alive," Dustin explained. "And all this is just too whacked out for anyone to believe!" Dustin ran his hand through his short cropped hair.

Hilde watched as Dustin ran his hand through his hair and smiled. "You look good without that braid. You must have lost your memory, because you never would have let anyone even touch it, much less cut it off!" She commented.

"Braid?" Dustin asked. "This is just too unbelievable! This has to be just some practical joke!" Dustin said aloud. He threw his hands up in the air in frustration and began to walk off.

"I bet you want to know where your gundam is."

Dustin turned around to face Hilde. "Gundam?"

----------------------------------------------------

**Author's notes: **this chapter is short, but more chapters should come soon!


	5. ch5: sketchbook of memories

**author's notes:** OMG! You don't know how hard I worked on this chapter! With so many people asking for more chapters, I furiously wrote 8 pages during my sociology lecture today! (haha! I bet my teacher thought I was taking notes on everything he was saying- ahah! As if!) Then I had to go home and TYPE it all! Argh! My hands hurt! Well I hope this chapter keeps you guys all entertained for at least another week or so! Ahha! Lemme know what you think!

p.s. I tried to add a little bit of humour on duo's part!

**ch5: sketch book of memories**

"You know, your gundam!" Hilde smiled. "Those things that you gundam pilots are usually known for!" She exclaimed sarcastically.

Dustin stood with his mouth wide open. "I know this has to be a joke!" Hilde shook her head. "Okay," Dustin said, figuring that he might as well entertain the girl with her weird ideas. "Where is this mysterious gundam?"

Hilde smiled again. "Should we take your ride or mine?"

--------------------------------------

AC195

"Row row row your boat. Gently down the stream.."

"Will you shut up!" Wufei yelled.

"What's up your ass, Fei?"

"Nothing!" Wufei grumbled and returned to his reading.

"He's just mad that he got defeated by Quatre today," Heero explained, taking his eyes off his laptop to explain to Duo.

"Whoa! Quatre kicked your ass?" Duo asked, his eyes widening in excitement. "Why didn't anyone tell me you two had a fight?"

"It was a game of chess!" Wufei yelled. "Not a fist fight!"

"Wow! You really take chess pretty seriously then, eh?"

The three gundam pilots were staking out Zech Marquise. He was scheduled to meet with a traitor to OZ within the hour. According to the scientists, Zechs had been ordered to assassinate the traitor. However, the gundam boys were ordered to rescue the traitor and bring him to Howard's ship for questioning. A traitor to OZ was a friend of the gundam pilots.

Duo sat by the window with his binoculars. Wufei sat on the armchair and read, while Heero sat at the small, round dining table with his laptop.

"Hey Fei, you wanna d-"

"No!"

"Heero, yo-"

"No."

"Come on guys, Let's do something! I'm so damn bored!" Duo complained.

"Zechs should be here within the hour," Heero explained.

Duo sighed. After about a minute he asked, "Are you guys hungry?"

Wufei closed his book with a loud thud. "Why are you so antsy today?" he asked, trying to stop himself from yelling at the American boy. "If you're unable to perform on this mission, then leave."

"I'm not antsy!" Duo squealed defensively.

"Yes you are!" Wufei rebutted. "You haven't sat still for the last two hours now!"

Heero looked up from his laptop. "Duo goes on a mission to L2 tomorrow," he explained.

Wufei's anger went away. They all knew that L2 was one of the poorest colonies, and also where the plague wiped out the majority of the people there. Although the gundam pilots knew little about Duo's past, the one thing they knew about was that Duo was from the L2 colony.

"You're going to L2?" Wufei asked. This time his tone was not angry or annoyed. They all knew what it was like to have that feeling that one day they might actually visit home. And for most of the boys, revisiting one's past was a painful experience.

Duo bowed his head. "Yeah."

Duo was quiet until Zechs arrived.

-----------------------------------------

Duo led the way to his convertible. Hilde still couldn't believe that after all this time, her best friend was alive. As they neared the car, Duo pulled his keys out of his pocket and pressed the button to unlock the car. Duo walked over to the passenger's side of the car and opened the door for Hilde. He smiled and gestured for her to hop in.

Hilde took a second and smiled at her old friend. She took Duo's offer and got in. Then Duo closed the door for Hilde and then made his way to the driver's side of the car. He started the car then realised he had no idea where to go.

"So, where are we headed?" Duo asked, leaning one arm over the steering wheel.

Hilde pointed north. "That way," she smiled. "Howard's gonna flip when he sees you!"

Duo slipped on his sunglasses. "Who's Howard?"

-----------------------------------------

AC195

Duo arrived six hours early for his mission. It wasn't that he needed time to prepare; rather he wanted some time to do a little sight seeing. He had a feeling that he'd be needing to leave the colony in a hurry, so he'd have to do the looking around before the mission.

Duo hid his gundam in an old abandoned junkyard and made his way to the main road. He hopped on the first bus that came past and headed to the poorest end of the L2 colony. On the bus, Duo looked out the window. It had been ten years since the Maxwell church burned down, and now there were new townhouses built over it. In the last ten years, Duo had only visited the L2 colony once before. On his previous visit, he collected all information he could on the Maxwell church. It was his only connection to the world. Father Maxwell and Sister Helen were the closest things he had to parents. They _were_ his parents.

Duo reached into his black backpack and pulled out a hard cover notebook. It was black, of course. He opened it and flicked through its pages. There were drawings, doodles and sketches of his Deathscythe. After he flicked past all that, he reached the pages where he'd collected all the information on the Maxwell church. The first pages of his research had the newspaper article about the Maxwell church being burned down. The picture next to the article was of the burnt remains of the Maxwell church. In the background, behind the remains of the orphanage, stood the mobile suit that Duo had brought to the orphanage. Who ever had written the article had gotten all the details wrong. It didn't explain that it was OZ soldiers that caused the fire and the deaths of almost everyone in the orphanage. Rather, the article explained that it was a terrorist who stole a mobile suit who destroyed the orphanage, for reasons unknown. Of course, no one really knew OZ was responsible because there was no evidence to prove it.

Duo turned the page and there was a picture of Father Maxwell and Sister Helen. Underneath was information on the two, gathered from government databases that Duo had hacked. Duo had been collecting any bits of information he could on the Maxwell church. He turned a couple of pages and there was information on the plague. Duo was backtracking his whole life. And the reason why he arrived early before his mission was to hunt for his past. He was now trying to find out who he really was, who his parents were, and where he came from.

-----------------------------------

"So Hilde. If I was a gundam pilot, why isn't there any evidence of it?" Dustin asked.

Hilde put her hand on Duo's shoulder. She wanted Howard to be there when she answered Duo's questions. Howard had been Duo's friend for a lot longer than she'd been friends with Duo. "Howard and I will give you all your answers when we get there," She explained.

Dustin rolled his eyes. "Well, that sucks!"

Hilde found it hard to keep everything in. She wanted to tell Dustin everything right there and then, but she knew it was better if she waited. She directed Dustin out of the city and towards the more industrialised area. It took them an hour to get there, but Dustin figured that whatever he found out would make the drive worthwhile.

"Left here," Hilde instructed. Dustin nodded and turned left into 'Howard's junkyard and mechanics'.

"Who's this Howard guy?" Dustin asked again. "Is he the leader or something?"

Hilde answered, "He's one of your best friends." Again, she didn't want to give too much away just yet, and she knew it was giving Dustin the shits that he had to wait so long for answers. Hilde told Dustin where to park his car. They got out and Hilde began walking towards a small portable office. Dustin followed, not knowing what to do.

The portable office looked tiny from the outside, and Dustin had no idea what they were doing there. "Is my Gundam in there?" Dustin joked.

Hilde smiled coyly but did not reply. She walked into the portable and Dustin followed. 'I just know she's part of cult and they're gonna use me as some ritualistic sacrifice!' Dustin thought to himself. Inside the portable was a desk with a desk lamp on it. There was a rug on the floor, but that was it.

"So how small is my so called gundam?" Dustin joked. He watched as Hilde rolled up the rug.

"You'll see," she smiled.

Dustin wondered why Hilde was moving the rug, when she saw a large metal trap door underneath. "Oh, that's not a cliché!" He said sarcastically.

Hilde lifted the trap door to reveal a dark staircase. "Come on!" She smiled brightly as she headed down the staircase.

Dustin took a deep breath and prayed that she really isn't just leading him into a trap. He followed Hilde down the dark cliché staircase. "Shut it behind you," Hilde instructed. Dustin shut the trap door and continued to follow Hilde down the staircase. The staircase was narrow lit up by a light at each end of the staircase. At the bottom of the staircase, Dustin could see another door. Hilde reached the door first and opened it. Dustin was close behind and when he saw what was behind the door he stood in awe. They were standing on a metal platform at least three storeys off the ground. They were in a large underground bunker. It was as large as a football field and at least four storeys deep. Dustin couldn't believe his eyes when he saw on the far wall was the gundam Deathscythe.

Dustin had never seen a gundam up close before, at least not in the two years that he does remember. He'd seen them on TV and on the news, but his mum made sure he stayed clear of any battles that involved the gundams. She told him that very rarely do the gundam pilots leave anyone alive when they attacked an OZ base. Dustin believed that she just wanted him to stay alive.

"Oh my God!" Dustin exclaimed. "Is that it?" Dustin asked, pointing to the gundam. It looked like it still needed a little work, but it was obvious that it was the Deathscythe. There were mechanics working all over the place. Hilde instructed Dustin to go down the staircase and towards the gundam.

"Yes," She said in reply to Dustin's question. "Because pretty much all the remains were salvaged by OZ, we've had to start from scratch. We would have been done a long time ago, but finding and salvaging gundanium is a hard thing to do these days," Hilde explained.

Dustin couldn't keep his eyes off the black metal that covered the gundam. It gleamed under the fluorescent lights. He stared at it and studied it's shape and every colour in it. He couldn't tell if seeing it brought back a familiar feeling or if he just wished that he were the gundam pilot who used the Deathscythe.

At the feet of the Deathscythe, Dustin saw an old man standing with a large rolled up paper tucked under his arm. They looked like schematics. He was calling out to a couple of mechanics who were working on the Deathcythe's left shoulder. "Do I need to show you guys the schematics again?" He yelled. "Because you guys are getting it all wrong!"

As Dustin walked closer, he could see the old man's features a little better. He wore a Hawaiian shirt and cargo pants. His white hair stuck out to the sides and he had a pointy beard. He wore sunglasses, which Dustin thought was weird since they were underground.

Hilde led the way towards the old man. "Howard!" She called out. Howard turned around to face Hilde.

"Oh! Hey Hilde!" He greeted. "How's.." Suddenly Howard stopped talking once he'd taken a look at Hilde's guest. "My boy!" Howard exclaimed. "Duo?" Howard asked. Dustin didn't know how to respond. He didn't know who Howard was and he still didn't know if he was this Duo Maxwell character. Howard took a step closer to Dustin and put his hands on Dustin's shoulders.

"I gotta say, I never thought you'd ever cut your hair, but I guess I can get used to it!" Howard joked. That was the second time someone had talked about Dustin having long hair. Dustin didn't know whether to believe them or not. Howard saw the confused look on Dustin's face. "Duo? Don't you remember me?" Howard asked. Dustin shook his head.

"He doesn't remember any of us," Hilde explained. "He thinks his name is Dustin."

Howard put an arm around the back of Dustin's shoulders. "Well, then let's all have a chat. I'd really like to hear where you've been hiding al this time!" Howard explained.

"Yeah," Dustin replied. "I have a few questions myself."

Howard led Dustin and Hilde to the lounge room. There were a few mechanics in there having coffees, and Howard asked them politely to give himself, Hilde and Dustin a little privacy. The mechanics nodded and left. Howard gestured for Dustin to take a seat on one of the couches. Dustin sat, as instructed, and Howard sat in an armchair next to Dustin.

"I'll be right back," Hilde said. Howard nodded and Hilde left the room.

Dustin wasted no time in getting some much-needed answers. "So, who are you, Howard?"

Howard leaned back in his armchair. "I'm the guy who helped build the gundams," He explained. "When Operation Meteor began, I had been the guy you'd come to to fix your gundam.

Dustin nodded. "So, we were friends?"

Howard nodded. "Good friends."

Dustin had so many questions to ask, but her didn't know what to ask first. "What happened to Duo Maxwell? He's supposed to be dead," Dustin asked. He referred to Duo Maxwell in the third person because he still had a hard time believing that he was Duo Maxwell.

Howard picked up on it and decided to play along. "About two years ago, OZ had waged a war on the Sanc Kingdom. Relena Peacecraft had just declared the Sanc Kingdom was to become a pacifist nation. She ordered all weapons and mobile suits to be destroyed as an example which she hoped would be followed by the rest of the world."

"That was a bold move," Dustin commented. He leaned forward and leaned his elbows on his knees, listening intently.

Howard nodded. "OZ took the opportunity to finally take over the Sanc Kingdom. It was no surprise that Zechs didn't want to participate in the attack. He was, after all, a Peacecraft himself."

Duo nodded. "Fair enough. Then what happened?"

"Because Relena ordered all weapons to be destroyed, the only defence was the five gundams. The gundams are formidable weapons, but they were no match for the enormous number of mobile suits OZ deployed to take over the Sanc Kingdom. Things were looking bad for the gundam pilots. They were at it for hours, and it was getting obvious that it was a battle that the gundams just couldn't win. In an act of desperation, Duo Maxwell, gundam pilot zero two, self destructed." Howard took a breath. Dustin listened carefully. He'd learnt that one of the pilots had self destructed during that battle but he was never really told any other details.

Howard continued. He prayed that what he was telling Dustin would kick start his memory. "The blast took out a considerable amount of OZ mobile suits, but the rest of the gundam pilots were forced to retreat. I was waiting for them just outside the borders of the Sanc Kingdom. We all waited for weeks before we'd get the opportunity to search for any remains of the Deathscythe or Duo. By then, OZ had taken everything they could salvage from the Deathscythe. We all assumed that you had died, Duo." Howard concluded. "But I guess we were wrong."

Dustin was silent. He didn't know what to think of it all. Could he really have been that boy who self-destructed? Or are they all mistaking him for their long lost friend?

By then, Hilde had returned. Dustin noticed that she had brought back a black, hard cover notebook. "What did I miss?" She asked as she sat on another couch, opposite Dustin. Dustin looked at the notebook. Hilde placed it in her lap. Dustin wondered what was in it and why she had brought it.

'Is she going to take notes or something?' He thought to himself. 'She hasn't got a pen though.'

"I was just explaining how Duo self destructed and how we all thought he had died," Howard explained.

Hilde nodded, then turned her attentions to Dustin. "So what _do_ you remember? Where have you been for the last two years?" Dustin went on to explain how he'd woken up in hospital with no memory and with Lady Une by his side. He told how Une explained that she was his mother, and he'd been living with her ever since.

Howard rubbed his chin. "I never expected Lady Une to do something like that," He commented. He saw the confused look on Dustin's face.

"So wasn't she always my mum?" Dustin asked. He found it extremely hard to believe that the woman who had fed him, clothed him and treated him so well, could lie to him like that.

Hilde looked shocked. "She's not your mother, Duo!" She said a little more forceful than she intended. "She never was! What the hell was that woman feeding you!"

"Food!" Dustin joked. He knew it was a bad time for jokes, but it was all he could think of for such a quick response. He was getting defensive and he didn't like Hilde talking about his mother in that way. "And I already know she's not my real mother. I was adopted," Dustin replied angrily.

"Duo," Howard said reassuringly. "You're Duo Maxwell, pilot zero two, pilot of the Deathscythe. You were never Une's son," Howard explained with less force than what Hilde was using.

Dustin stood up. "How can you say that!" He yelled. "She's clothed me! Fed me! She stayed by my side for months while I was in hospital! If she wasn't my mother then why would she have done that!" He yelled.

Hilde stood up. She was hugging the black book. Dustin wondered what was so special about a stupid notebook. "She's the enemy, Duo!" Hilde pleaded.

Dustin threw his hands up in the air. "Don't call me that!" He yelled, but Hilde didn't listen.

"You've been living with the enemy! They've brainwashed you, Duo! OZ is the enemy! Don't you understand that!" She pleaded.

Dustin was mad. OZ was trying to bring peace to the colonies and trying to unite them with Earth. He was a part of that organization. His mother was dedicated to peace! He couldn't believe that she was the enemy. "Obviously not," Dustin growled. He couldn't believe the lies that Hilde and Howard had been feeding him. "You're just lying to me. You're trying to bring me over to your side. I wont betray my mother and OZ!" Dustin exclaimed.

"Duo, we're not lying to you!" Howard explained, getting out of his seat. "We're telling you the truth!"

But Dustin had heard enough. It would take more than just words to make him believe that he was really Duo Maxwell and they had yet to show him any real proof. "I gotta go," Dustin explained, then hurriedly left the room. He remembered which way Hilde had brought him in, so he had no problem getting out.

However, on his way as he passed the gundam, Dustin took his mobile phone out of his pocket and took a photo of the Deathscythe. He checked behind him and saw that Hilde nor Howard were following him. He was glad, because he still didn't know what to believe.

He made his way up the narrow staircase and lifted the metal trap door. He made sure he closed it as he left and headed towards his car. Dustin unlocked the convertible and hopped in the driver's seat. As he put the key in the ignition, he heard someone calling his name.

"Dustin!" It was Hilde and she was running towards him. She had the notebook in her hand.

Dustin started the car.

"Wait!" Hilde called out. Dustin waited, just as she'd asked. He didn't want to listen to anymore of her 'lies', but he waited anyway. He watched as she quickly ran to his car. "At least take this," She said. She held out the black notebook for Duo to take.

"What is it?" Dustin asked.

Hilde was puffed out from the running but she managed a smile anyway. "It's yours," She replied. "You left it with me a couple of days before you went to the Sanc Kingdom."

Dustin thought he'd humour the girl, so he took the notebook. Maybe it would give him some of the answers he was looking for. He placed it on the passenger's seat. "Thanks," he replied.

Hilde smiled. "You know where to find us if you decide to come back."

Dustin nodded and put his sunglasses on. The sun was setting and the sky was filled with amazing shades of red, pink and orange. Hilde stepped away from the car and Dustin drove off.

Dustin didn't touch the book until he got home. He rolled the car into the garage and turned off the car. He looked into the passenger's seat and picked up the notebook. He felt the front cover. It was made of black cardboard, but the edges were frayed, from frequent use. He opened it to the front page, but it was blank.

"Oh yep! There's an answer right there!" He joked to himself. He turned the next page, and there was a detailed sketch of the Deathscythe. It looked different to the one Hilde had showed him. The colours were different and there were a few new modifications on the one in the bunker. Dustin figured that the picture is of what the gundam originally looked like.

In the next few pages were sketches of the gundam's hands and head, along with detailed notes on modifications to be done. The next few pages were similar, each with their own ideas and sketches for modifications. The next page contained an article of an orphanage called the 'Maxwell Church'. Dustin flicked past it, and the next pages contained information on a Father Maxwell and Sister Helen. He flicked past them, promising himself he'd read it later. The next page is what caught his eye. After all the information of the Maxwell Church, there was a sketch of a cross with a long gold chain. It was very detailed. It was as if this Duo Maxwell had thought it sentimental enough to spend an extremely long time drawing it. The cross was drawn in black and white, so he had no idea what colour it was meant to be. However, the cross looked awfully familiar.

"Holy Crap!" He said to himself. "Why didn't I notice it before!"

Dustin looked up from the sketch and looked at the item hanging from his rear-view mirror. There hung the exact same cross that was drawn in the notebook. Dustin held the cross in the palm of his hand. He lifted it closer to his face to get a better look at it. He remembered wearing it when he woke up in hospital, but he didn't remember being especially religious.

Dustin looked back at the sketch to compare the difference. It was the exact same cross.

"How is this possible?"


	6. ch6: Evidence

**Author's notes:** Well well well.. about bloody time I find the muse to continue this story! I hope I haven't lost all my fans already! This chapter gets a bit heated, so just a warning about some mild sexy scenes! Don't forget to review!

**Ch6: evidence**

Dustin spent the next few hours in his bedroom. He couldn't comprehend what had just happened. He was slowly starting to believe that he was this Duo Maxwell character that Heero, Hilde and Howard thought he was. The only thing he found the hardest to believe was that his mother was the enemy.

'She's not the enemy!'

Dustin lay on his bed and flipped through the notebook. He read through all the articles on the Maxwell church, yet he had no idea _why_ those articles were in there.

'They had to important. Otherwise they wouldn't be in there! Is Duo Maxwell Father Maxwell's son or something?'

After he'd read through all the articles on Father Maxwell, Sister Helen and the burning down of the Maxwell church, Dustin sighed. 'I don't remember any of this! If I _am_ Duo Maxwell, then why can't I remember it?' Dustin thought to himself.

Dustin turned the page and stuck in the middle of the page was the first piece of solid evidence. It was just the evidence that Dustin was looking for.

"Oh my God!" He exclaimed. "How!"

Dustin ran his fingers over the photo. It was of himself and Hilde sitting on a park bench, eating ice-creams. Nay, it was Duo Maxwell and Hilde sitting on a park bench eating ice-creams. Dustin leaned in closer to the photo. There next to Hilde was a braided violet-eyed boy that looked just like him. The similarity was so uncanny, Dustin found it hard _not_ to believe that it was him.

"I had a braid?"

Dustin looked under the photo and there in his handwriting was written '_Hilde and I at Central Park'. _There was all the evidence Dustin needed.

"I gotta go back to Hilde's place!"

Dustin shot off the bed. He grabbed his notebook and his car keys and headed for the front door. He wanted to go see Hilde and get some more answers. If only she'd shown him the photo when he was at their bunker. He would have believed her then. The only thing he had to sort out with her was why they would think his mother was the enemy.

Dustin's heart was pumping at a million miles an hour. He needed answers and he couldn't wait to get them. But what Dustin didn't count on was his mum getting home. As Dustin reached the doorway, he saw the handle lower and the door swing open.

"Oh! Hi, mom!" Dustin greeted. He quickly put his keys in his pocket so she didn't know he was going out.

Une stepped inside the house, surprised to see her son waiting for her at the door. "Hello, Dustin. How was your day?" Une asked. Dustin watched as she put down her suitcase and he followed her to the living room.

"It was okay. I was just on my way out," He explained. Dustin followed Une to the large living room.

Une sat herself down on one of the large white couches and began removing her shoes. "Don't you have exams coming up, Dustin?" Une asked, raising one eyebrow in Dustin's direction. "I thought I remember you saying you wanted to get better marks this year."

Dustin rolled his eyes. She was right. Why did parents He'd promised her he'd do more studying to get higher marks, but with all the excitement going on, he'd totally forgot but he still needed to get out and see Hilde. "Yeah, I know. I was just heading out to see Peter about some problems I'm having with one of the chapters," Dustin lied. He tapped the notebook in his hands with his fingers to try validate what he was saying.

Une removed her boots and leaned back on the couch. She was tired and Dustin knew when she was tired that he shouldn't push his luck. If she didn't want him to go out, he wasn't going to push it. Unfortunately for Dustin, this was one of those days. "You'll have to tell Peter that you'll see him another day. Mr. Treize called me today and told me what happened at Lake Victoria. I want you home. I want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm okay, mom! See.. me.. here.. I'm okay," Dustin explained. "So I definitely can't go out tonight?" Dustin asked again, hoping his mom would change her mind.

"No. I want you home tonight. And besides, if it's that important, you can just call Peter," Une explained.

Dustin huffed in defeat. "Fine," he groaned. He turned on his heel and began walking towards his bedroom.

Before he could leave the room, Une called out, "Treize and Zechs will be here tomorrow for dinner so I want you home, is that understood?"

Dustin waved a hand at Une to show he heard her and continued walking to his bedroom. He was desperate to get out, and if it weren't for the guards patrolling the perimeter, he would have snuck out too.

Instead, Dustin headed for his room.

-------------------------------------

"Hey Hiildeeee?" Howard called out. He walked through the hallway that led to the dormitories. The shelter was enormous indeed but to allow for more room for the gundams and for the gundam's mechanical repairs, the dormitories were small rooms with a small bathroom each. As he walked closer to Hilde's door, he saw it swing open and Hilde skipped out with a bounce in her step.

"Howard! I got an email from Heero!" She smiled bubbly. "He told me how he found out Duo was alive!

Howard smiled. He knew Heero and Hilde had become friends after they all thought Duo had died. They were Duo's best friends and that brought Heero and Hilde closer. "Did you tell him how we saw Duo here yesterday?" Howard asked.

Hilde nodded. "Yeah I did. I emailed him everything, even how Duo thinks Lady Une isn't the bad guy! Heero said he'll try get here as soon as he can," She explained.

"That's good news, Hilde," Howard exclaimed. "It's been a long time since we've seen Heero. I hope he brings his gundam. I want to see how that boy's been treating his gundam."

Hilde laughed, "Yeah! Knowing Heero, his gundam is falling apart and he's been repairing it with stolen parts!"

--------------------------------

Dustin stayed in his room for the next day, except to come out for food. Treize and Zechs were due to be over for dinner soon. He figured that since he wasn't going to be allowed to leave the premises, he may as well try do something useful, like studying for his impending exams. The only problem was that exams were the last thing on his mind. Dustin sat at his desk. He'd been staring at the same page for an hour. His mind kept wandering. He was busting to get out of the house and go see Hilde, but his mom refused to let him out. He held his head up on his hands, his elbows resting on the desk.

'This is so stupid!' Dustin thought to himself. 'I gotta get out! I gotta go show that photo to Hilde!' Dustin had by now convinced himself that he _was_ Duo Maxwell, gundam pilot zero two. He imagined himself sneaking into OZ bases and blowing them up, just like the pilots are notorious for. It _would_ make sense that he was Duo Maxwell. It explains why he somehow knew how to pilot mobile suits and hack databases. His mom told him that she trained him and enrolled him in a secret OZ program for the children of OZ senior officers.

"Pffft! Secret program my ASS!" Dustin groaned to himself. He sighed then dropped his head on the desk. Dustin's forehead came crashing down onto the desktop. "Ow.."

Dustin lifted his head off the desk and rubbed his forehead. "I need to get out!" He groaned again. He stood up and stretched his hands up in the air. He turned to go lie down on his bed, and then he saw it.

He'd left his laptop open on his bed. He'd tried numerous times over the previous two days to find any information on Duo Maxwell. The OZ databases and government databases had no useful information on Gundam pilot zero two. There were a few fan sites about the gundam pilots, but they were filled with blurry pictures taken by fans from a far distance or newspaper articles.

Dustin walked closer to his laptop. A new window had opened up by itself. The background was black and four white words sat at the top corner of the window.

**YOU ARE DUO MAXWELL …**

Dustin quickly sat on his bed and stared at the laptop. "What the!" he exclaimed out loud. Dustin didn't know who it was, or how they knew how to hack into his laptop. He put his fingers to the keyboard, but he wasn't exactly sure of what to write. There were too many questions. Who's, What's, When's, How's, and Why's! Then he found himself writing:

**WHO'S THIS?**

It wasn't a question that was going to get him a lot of valuable information, but Dustin wanted to know who he was talking to.

**YOUR BEST FRIEND**

Dustin stared at the screen. "My best friend?" He repeated out loud. He thought about his friends. There was Zechs, who was his best friend, but he doubted that Zechs would hack into his computer. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time!" Dustin said to himself as he remembered how Zechs had once hacked into Dustin's computer as a practical joke. He doubted the hacker was any of his college mates. That covered all his best friends that he _knew_ of.

"But if this guy's saying that I'm Duo Maxwell, then who was Duo Maxwell's best friend?" Dustin put his fingers to they keyboard. He figured that whoever Duo Maxwell's best friend was would be the first one to find him because they cared about him most.

**ARE YOU HEERO YUY?**

And Dustin waited for a response. The response was almost instant.

**YES. **

Then Dustin waited. There was nothing else written. "And!" Dustin called out to the computer, as if by some magic, Heero could hear him through the screen. And so Dustin figured maybe Heero was waiting for him to ask something.

**DO YOU HAVE ANY EVIDENCE (FILES, PHOTOS) THAT PROVE THAT I'M DUO?**

Dustin felt his heart pound in his chest with anticipation. He had the photo of himself and Hilde and that was enough to sway him, but he wanted to know what he was like as a gundam pilot.

**YES.**

"Oh My Fucking God!" Duo groaned out loud. "Is that all?"

**CAN I HAVE IT?**

Duo typed. His fingers hit the keyboard with enough force, that he felt as if he tapped the keys hard enough, maybe somehow Heero would hear how frustrated he was. He waited for a few minutes and there was still no response. By now Dustin was biting his nails in suspense. "What is taking him so long?"

--------------------------------------

Heero sat staring at the screen of his laptop. He was finally getting through to Duo, Dustin –whoever this guy thought he was. But convincing this guy was one thing. It was bringing him back over to their side that was going to be hard. He now worked for OZ, and no doubt brainwashed to think that the Gundam pilots were the enemy. 'What would convince him so strongly to bring him back to us?' Heero asked himself.

Heero searched through the files on his laptop. He didn't really have many photos to prove who Duo was, but he did have profile info on Duo and the rest of the gundam pilots, collected over the years along with a few mission files from missions he and Duo went on. Heero sent the files to Dustin. It contained everything from an Id photo to Duo's history (whatever he'd told Heero) to Duo's specialities and mission logs.

'I hope this helps.'

---------------

Dustin accepted the file and saved it to his laptop. He was busting to read it. But at the same time, if he opened it, did he really want to know the truth if it meant his mum and OZ were the enemy?

"Dustin?" Une called out through Dustin's bedroom door.

Dustin turned the laptop screen so that it was facing away from the door. "Come in!" Dustin called out.

The bedroom door opened and Une stuck her head in the room, a trait all mothers seem to have. "They'll be here in an hour. Could you please change into something more decent?"

Dustin groaned, "Yes, mo-om."

When Une left the room, Dustin looked back at the screen on his laptop. 'If I open the file, it could change my life if it proves that I'm this Duo Maxwell. If I ignore it then I go on with life as normal.' Dustin was torn on what to do. Curiosity was winning over but he also didn't know if he wanted his life to change. Confirmation that he was once Duo Maxwell would only validate the reasons why he'd felt like something was missing in his life. Since he'd woken up in that hospital bed, he'd had dreams about piloting in a Mobile Suit. But who he was fighting for and who he was battling against was too blurry to decipher.

Dustin moved the mouse so that it sat above the file that Heero had just sent him. His finger wavered over the 'Enter' button.

------------------

Hilde sat across the table from Duo. It was night and they were sitting at a table outside the front of a café in Italy. To passers by, they looked like a normal couple, enjoying a coffee on a warm summer night. But across the road from the café stood a recruitment building for OZ. They were looking for someone. An informant who had claimed to have information for the Gundam Soldiers.

"You know," Hilde commented, looking at her hot chocolate, "This would really be romantic if we didn't have that other thing to do.." She looked back up at Duo, who was still looking over her shoulder, towards the entrance of the recruitment building.

"Yeah," He replied, "If the world were different then this could be romantic."

Hilde nodded silently and went back to drinking her coffee. They didn't talk for a full 10 minutes after that and Duo felt bad. They'd discussed it many times before. Duo didn't want Hilde to be his girlfriend because she'd become leverage for the enemy to get to him. Duo moved his chair around the table so that he was now sitting next to Hilde, but still able to see over her shoulder in case the informant arrived. "Hilde. You know I like you. If we were just two normal teenagers then I'd have asked you out months ago. But what if OZ did something to you to get to me?" Duo asked, lifting Hilde's chin so that she could look straight into his violet eyes.

"You're right," She replied, sounding utterly defeated. She made no effort to hide her feelings from Duo and he wished he didn't have to hide his.

Duo was about to say something but then the informant could be seen walking down the street and into the recruitment building. "He's here," Duo explained, getting up from his seat while still staring at the building. As he stood up, Hilde caught sight of his pistol that was tucked into the front of his pants.

"Be careful," Hilde whispered.

Duo smiled and bent down and kissed her tenderly on the cheek. "You know me," He smiled.

Hilde smiled back, "That's my point!"

Duo walked about three steps in the direction of the recruitment building when the recruitment building was blown up.

Glass from the windows had flown everywhere. Duo shielded Hilde from the blast. When they got back to their apartment/hideout, Hilde offered to clean up the shallow cuts on Duo's back.

"Take off your top. I'll got get a towel and some hot water," Hilde instructed. Duo smiled and did as he was told. It was the first time since knowing Hilde that either of them had bared any flesh to the other. Duo sat down on a dining chair, facing the back of the chair so Hilde could clean up the tiny cuts on his back.

Just as she'd said, she'd returned with a hand towel and a bowl of warm water. She was surprised at Duo sitting there without his shirt on, even though she was the one to tell him to strip. She'd dreamt about him without a top (and other clothes) for months. She placed the bowl on the dining table next to Duo. She dipped one end of the towel in the warm water and rung it out. She then proceeded to clean up the dried blood off Duo's back. Thankfully none of the glass had dug into his back because they were across the street from the recruitment building when it blew up. But the glass had flown hard and fast enough to cut him.

"Does it hurt?" Hilde asked as she wiped his back.

Duo closed his eyes and leaned his chin on the back of the dining chair. "No," he replied, "It's actually quite soothing."

Hilde smiled to herself as she took the opportunity to perve on Duo's toned back. His braid was slung over his shoulder, as to not get in the way of her cleaning his back. She couldn't stop herself from leaning forward and kissing Duo on his back, right at the base of his neck.

Duo felt her lips, and realised what she was doing. He was sick of having a girl with him who liked him as much as he liked her, and not being able to be _with_ her. Duo turned his head around and caught her lips just as she was pulling back from her kiss on his back. Duo felt like his lips were electrically charged as he kissed Hilde for the first time. He'd dreamt about kissing her for a long time and he'd almost kissed her many a time before, but always stopped himself at the last second. Duo broke their kiss to give himself the opportunity to stand up and face the raven haired girl.

"I don't care what I said," He whispered. "Screw the greater good, even if just for tonight."

Hilde smiled and nodded. She threw her arms around Duo's neck and kissed him. Her tongue caressed his bottom lip and he wondered why he never kissed her before today. Duo put his hands on her hips. He felt around for the bottom of her purple t-shirt and lifted it up. Hilde lifted her hands up in the air to aid Duo in taking her top off. "Bedroom," Hilde whispered as she began to fiddle with Duo's belt.

Duo smiled. He'd been aching to be with Hilde and he was glad she had the same idea as him. "Bedroom it is." And the two of them made their way to the tiny bedroom, still caressing, fondling and removing clothing along the way.

The next morning, Duo was to leave for Howard's ship to Meet up with Heero. Duo looked over at Hilde. She lay sleeping peacefully on her stomach. Last night was the first time for both of them and he made sure he was gentle the whole time. He kissed his sleeping beauty on the forehead before heading out. "I love you, Hilde." It was the last time Duo Maxwell saw Hilde. He 'died in the battle at the Sanc Kingdom three days later.


	7. ch7: a history much sought after

**Author's notes:** Ah! This chapter has been long overdue, hasn't it! Well I've decided to write two chapters to make up for the lost time! Oh, speaking of time, in these next two chapters I go back and forth in time because I want to build a clear background on Duo and the events surrounding his past and his decisions in the present. Hope it isn't _too_ confusing for you all! Please review! Let me know what you think and anything you wanna see! Okay, on with the story!

**ch7: A history much sought after**

Dustin held his finger less than an inch from the 'Enter' button. 'I already believe the photo,' he thought to himself. 'I _have_ to be this Duo guy. But can I live with the knowledge that mum, Treize and Zechs are the enemy? Do I _want_ to know that the last two years were a lie?'

"Dustin!" Une called from down the hall. Dustin pulled his finger away from the laptop and closed the laptop. He'll have to look at the file later.

-----------------

"HOOOOOOOOOWARD!" Hilde called out down the hallway that lead to all the dormitories. "Heero's here!" Hilde then ran back out into the underground hanger as the Wing Zero landed.

By the time the Wing Zero powered down and the cockpit hatch opened, Howard had joined Hilde in the hanger and watched Heero come down from the cockpit via the cable that descended him from it.

"Heero!" Hilde ran towards him. Heero dropped his backpack on the ground next to him and waited for Hilde to greet him. What he wasn't expecting was for Hilde to jump on him and wrap her arms around his neck. "I'm so glad you're here!" She said. Heero, who was still getting used to the whole 'showing emotions' thing, put a single arm around Hilde.

"I brought a friend," Heero said. He still didn't know how to greet someone and he was sure that if Duo was still around, he would have been told off for being so blunt.

Hilde was about to ask who he brought, but then she saw the Shenlong being lowered into the hanger. "Hey! Wufei's here too!" She said excitedly.

-------------------------

Dustin and Zechs sat in the living room, while Treize and Une were still sitting across the room on two large, leather armchairs, each with a glass of wine in their hands. Dustin was sitting in an armchair across from the large white couch that Zechs was sitting in. They were watching the wrestling on pay TV. Zechs wasn't too into it but Dustin sure was. Dustin watched intently, like a little kid in front of his cartoons. But today, Dustin had that niggling feeling in the back of his mind. He still had that file Heero sent to think about.

'If I was Duo Maxwell,' Dustin thought to himself, looking over at his platinum blonde friend, 'Then Zechs Marquise would be my enemy.' Dustin looked back at the TV again.

'Why is Zechs my friend? If mum knows who I was, then no doubt Treize knows too. And Zechs has been Treize's right hand man for almost four years now, so _he_ must know too, right?'

Dustin turned his gaze from the TV to Zechs. "Hey, Z. Can I ask ya a question?" Dustin asked, quiet enough to not let his mom hear him, but loud enough to make it seem like it wasn't a secretive matter.

Zechs, thankful that he had something else to focus his attentions on because he was getting bored watching the wrestling, nodded. "Shoot."

Dustin was hesitant at first about asking, fearful of what Zechs might say, but he needed to know. "Have you ever met a guy named Duo Maxwell?"

Zechs shook his head. "_Gundam pilot_ zero two? No. I'd faced him in battle with the other gundam pilots, but I'd never met him face to face," Zechs replied. "Why do you ask?"

Dustin stayed as calm and collected as possible, not wanting to give anything away. Knowing now that Zech's had never seen Duo's face, he was sure Zechs didn't know Dustin was Duo and knowing that, Dustin was scared that if Zechs found out he was a gundam pilot, he might kill him right then and there!

"I overheard someone saying that name and it sounded familiar. So that's the name of pilot zero two, eh?" Dustin asked. Zechs nodded. "Is he the one that died?" Dustin asked, playing dumb.

Zechs nodded again. "Yeah. In that battle in the Sanc Kingdom, around about the same time of your accident, the pilot self destructed in a hope that the blast would destroy most of Oz's forces."

"And did it? Destroy most of our forces, I mean?" Dustin purposely said 'our' in that sentence, scared that Zech's might suspect something after mentioning that Dustin's 'accident' was at around the same time as the self-destruction of zero two.

"Not enough to give the gundams an advantage in battle. The rest of the gundams retreated soon after that and the remains of the Deathscythe were salvaged and destroyed."

"I see," Dustin replied. He returned his gaze back to the TV. He figured that Zechs had no idea that the guy sitting in front of him might be a gundam pilot, so he didn't press the matter any further.

Zechs on the other hand, was intrigued at the random question headed his way. He knew that Dustin was prone to speaking his mind, but something about this conversation seemed a little more random than usual. However, the line of questioning tonight seemed more specific. Almost calculated. This was unlike the Dustin that Zechs knew. The thought niggled at Zech's brain. "So where did you hear that name from again?" Zechs asked.

Dustin's eyes widened ever so slightly and he hoped that Zechs didn't see it. Even though Zechs didn't react to Dustin's violet eyes widening, he definitely saw it. Something was up. Dustin turned his gaze back to Zechs and replied ever so calmly, "I overheard someone in the street saying something about the gundams. I was walking past them and all I heard was the name 'Duo Maxwell' and that was it. I tried looking him up in the OZ database, but there's no file on him." Dustin explained. He hoped that this explanation would suffice and satisfy Zech's curiosity.

However, it sparked even more interest in Zechs. "No file? How can that be? He's a gundam pilot. There has to be lots of data on him, Every time he took out an OZ facility it was documented."

Dustin shrugged at his platinum-haired companion. "Well, there's nothing there now!"

Zechs scowled at the thought. 'Has someone been purposely deleting files in our database? I'll have to do some research on it later tonight,' Zechs thought to himself. He smiled at Dustin. "I'll look into it tomorrow," he replied. Dustin nodded. "Speaking of gundam pilots, I hear you had a run-in with the infamous Heero Yuy." Zechs commented.

"Yeah. It was only for a sec, What did you hear?" Dustin said, unsure of whether the information about Dustin being Duo that Heero had announced out loud to Treize and Dustin had leaked.

"Nothing much. Only that you and Mr.Treize walked in on Heero Yuy executing the general. Heero Yuy escaped but not before you fired at him, protecting Mr.Treize."

Dustin leaned back in his chair. "I tell ya, Zechs. The stories that fly around are greatly exaggerated. But that's the general jist of it all." Dustin desperately wanted to get off the topic of gundams for a while. He needed to dig deeper without suddenly making enemies if his friends found out he might be Duo Maxwell. Dustin looked across the room at Lady Une and Treize. Treize had his hand placed atop of Une's as they spoke quietly to each other. Both smiled sweetly at each other, a behaviour only Zechs and Dustin had seen when the two were among close friends. "When do you think those two are gonna hook up already?" Dustin groaned. "It better be soon coz one, I hate seeing mum so lonely and two, everyone knows it but them that they both love each other."

Zechs nodded, but did not look at the couple across the room. He'd witnessed this behaviour form the two many times. But he knew that it was the same reason why he and Noin hadn't been together since they were at school. The war comes first and you don't fraternise with your fellow comrades.

-------------------

_AC 195_

Duo stood in a phone booth on a deserted street. The shops had long since abandoned and the only people who lived there were the homeless who squatted in the abandoned buildings. This neighbourhood used to be hustling and bustling with people when Duo was in his youth. They used to be his stomping grounds back when he used to pickpocket with Solo. The old, now demolished, Maxwell church used to be around the corner from where Duo stood.

Duo flipped open his notebook, pen at the ready. He was waiting for a phone call. He'd rung in a few favours to see if anyone could find anything on his own past. Of course, this would have been extremely hard because 'Duo Maxwell' wasn't his real name. Duo was a name he'd adopted from his old friend Solo, and Maxwell was in memory of the place he treasured and called home. His mission wasn't due to start until dusk, as he worked best under the cover of night.

Duo looked at his watch. Suddenly the payphone rang. Right on Cue. At the exact time he'd planned on with his contact. Duo picked up the phone and placed the dirty receiver to his ear. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry. I couldn't find anything on you, man. I tried, I really did."

Duo knew he shouldn't have expected as much, but deep down, he had a hope that maybe this guy would find _something_. Some kind of clue to who Duo was. Maybe even a real name. But instead, this guy had nothing. Duo was left with the hate and despair that he really was alone in his fucked-up life. The usually happy-go-lucky guy let out all his bottled up frustrations on the guy on the other end of the line. "What do you mean you couldn't find anything!?" Duo yelled. "There has to be something! Birth records? Hospital records, SOMETHING! How can there be nothing about me or my family!?"

The guy on the other end was cowering. He began stumbling on his own words out of fear. "There.. there were a.. a lot of boy kids.. born in.. in the couple of years.. you gave me. But there's.. there's too much data to narrow it.. narrow it down. I'm sorry!" The guy explained.

Duo huffed. "Well, too much or not, can you send me that data? I'll sort through it myself!" He grumbled. He at stopped yelling at least, but he was paying this guy to do some serious digging. He wasn't about to let his money go to waste now.

The guy on the other end agreed to get Duo the disk with all the data on it and up hung up the phone.

-----------------------------

After Zechs and Mr. Treize left their dinner with Dustin and Une, Dustin retreated to his room. He opened his laptop. He still had that file that Heero sent him to look at. By now, even with all the conflicting emotions, Dustin was sure he was Duo Maxwell. He clicked the file and opened it without a second thought.

Sure enough, Heero had done his homework. It had a profile picture on Duo Maxwell and even footage of when Duo Maxwell was captured early in the battle. Duo clicked the footage file. He couldn't believe no-one remembered it to tell him about it or even recognised him! The first file was of a news broadcast of Duo Maxwell, limp and defeated, being carried away by two OZ soldiers. His head hung low, and a bandaid placed across his nose. The reporter didn't report the name of the gundam pilot but that the 'mysterious youth' was responsible for the terrorism of numerous OZ bases on Earth.

Dustin clicked the next video file. It was of the interrogation room and of one of the OZ officers questioning Duo. Duo stayed quiet through it all, only giving his name and 'I may run and hide, but I never tell a lie.' The OZ officer backhanded Duo for not saying anything else.

Dustin clicked the third file. It was of another news broadcast of a new OZ pilot destroying the deactivated Deathscythe as a final test of his skills and capabilities.

Dustin then read the rest of the file Heero had sent him. Everything was in chronological order and so precisely written. He sensed that Heero may be a very anal guy. Dates of battles, bases Duo had destroyed and even days of upgrades to the Deathscythe were in there. Reading the list, Dustin found out that his Deathscythe had been rebuilt and repaired numerous times- by Howard.

'So I knew the old geezer after all,' Dustin thought to himself. He then read a small paragraph at the very bottom.

_**Personal note:** _

The only past known about Duo Maxwell is that he originated from the L2 colony. He'd once mentioned an old friend named Solo, but that Solo died from the plague. He grew up in the Maxwell Church orphanage, but it was destroyed by Oz soldiers.  
I took a look in that notebook he carries everywhere. He's collected massive amounts of information on the Maxwell Church and the L2 colony.  
He may also be having relations with Hilde Schbeiker.

'Hilde?' Dustin thought to himself. 'And what does he mean by _relations_ anyhow?' Dustin closed his laptop and unhooked it from the power socket. 'I gotta go get some answers.' Dustin grabbed his black backpack and slid his laptop into it, he then put Duo's black notebook in the backpack. He grabbed his keys off his desk and threw his backpack over his shoulder.

Une was in her bedroom, taking her hair out of their braids when there was a knock at the door. "Come in."

Une could see in the mirror that Dustin had stuck his head into her room through the opened door. "Hey, Mom! Can I go to Peter's now to go over some of my exam notes?" Dustin asked cheerfully, remembering that the other day his excuse for getting out of the house was to go see a mate from college to study.

Unlike last time he asked, Une nodded and told him not to stay out too late.

------------------

_2years ago- Sanc Kingdom_

"Oh my God!" Noin exclaimed as she watched the massive explosion on the large screens. She and Une were in the battle room at OZ's temporary base just a few kilometres away from the battle in the Sanc Kingdom. Noin knew the battle wasn't going well for the Gundam pilots, but didn't expect one of them to self-destruct with such desperation. They had room for escape, and even though she was the enemy of the gundams, she still preferred they escaped instead of taking their own lives. 'I wonder if this pilot was as young as that Chinese one that attacked the Lake Victoria base..'

Une, who was standing just in front of Noin, stared at the large explosion of the Deathscythe as if it were nothing. "How many suits did we lose?" Une asked in her intimidating tone.

"Seventy-three, Ma'am."

"Concentrate the rest of our forces on the last 4 gundams. We're winning this battle.. They just didn't know it until now," Une said.

Noin stared at the back of Une's head. She was always shocked at how Une can be so heartless, especially in times of war. 'I guess that's what makes her such a competent leader in Oz's eyes,' Noin thought to herself.

"The other gundams are retreating!"

Une smiled to herself, 'Victory is ours.' She turned around to face Noin. "I want you to get out there and salvage what you can from that gundam. There may still be parts of it left that will be useful to us," Une commanded.

Noin saluted Une and walked out of the room.

Almost half an hour later, Une got a call. "Yes?"

It was Noin. "Ma'am. The pilot of gundam zero two is alive! Only barely, but the paramedics have taken him away to see what they can do for him."

"I hope you did that only so we can interrogate him if he lives," Une said stoically. She knew that Noin did it out of the goodness of her heart, but Une was going to take advantage of having a live gundam pilot. She didn't give Noin time to reply before she said, "Never the less, I'll go see how bad his injuries are."


	8. ch8: lifechanging decisions

**Ch8: life-changing decisions**

_2 years ago (cont'd).._

Lady Une sat at Duo Maxwell's bedside. She'd been visiting him day after day for a solid week. At first, the doctors and the OZ soldiers guarding Duo thought it was just Une checking in on how soon she could interrogate Duo Maxwell. But after a few days, they suspected it to be more than that.

"Lady?"

Une looked up from the unconscious body before her and turned to look at the doorway. Treize had arrived. The Sanc Kingdom had been successfully overrun yet again by OZ. Treize had arrived to appoint an OZ-orientated leader to rule over the Sanc Kingdom.

"Mr. Treize.." Une exclaimed. She stood from her seat.

"It's alright, Lady Une. You may sit down," he instructed. Lady Une sat down, as told. Treize walked around the hospital bed so that he was on the opposite side to Une. He looked down at the unconscious Duo Maxwell, who's looks were unidentifiable because his eyes were bandaged closed and his chin had also been bandaged. Both his arms were broken and so was his left leg. The hospital gown covered bruises and incisions on his body from the doctors trying to stop his internal bleeding.

"I hear you've been visiting Duo Maxwell every day now," Treize commented. Une didn't look at Treize, but nodded in response. "I see." Treize looked over at Duo's bedside table. There lay a long gold chain with a gold and silver cross. "Religion seems to have been forgotten during this war," Treize said aloud.

Une looked up at him. She nodded, "If Duo survives, I'll allow him to keep it," She said, referring to the cross, seeing that Treize was looking at it.

"Duo?" Treize said, raising a single forked eyebrow at how Une mentioned the braided pilot by his first name only. "Lady Une, are you having.. feelings of sympathy towards this young man?"

Une wasn't sure how to respond. She fully intended to want to torture this gundam pilot for information, once he'd healed. But, when she first saw him all bandaged and bruised, she realised just how human the gundam pilots can be. She felt almost.. sorry for Duo, lying there so close to death. Une lowered her head and didn't say a word. Treize's answer was confirmed as soon as Une reached for Duo's broken and plastered hand.

--------------------

Dustin drove towards the underground base Hilde led him too earlier. He needed to ask her some more questions, and he felt more open to her answers now. The main problem was trying to find out why the gundams were so against his mother, Treize and Zechs. He couldn't bear to become the enemy of the three people closest to him.

Dustin was so immersed in his own thoughts that he didn't realise that someone was tailing him. The rogue black jeep behind him was gaining on him to the point where they were dangerously close to the back of his convertible. Dustin just didn't realise they were there until the black jeep swerved to the wrong side of the road to drive up along side the convertible.

Dustin looked over at the dark tinted windows of the black jeep. "Huh?"

The window of the passenger side of the jeep rolled down. A young Chinese man was staring back at Dustin. "Pull over!" The Chinese guy yelled out.

Dustin shook his head and looked ahead at the road again. "Nothing's going to stop me from getting to Hilde. I need answers and no punk is going to slow me down!" Dustin growled to himself. He floored the gas pedal and sped off.

Wufei watched the convertible zoom off. He looked over at Heero, who was driving. "Well, he's still as cocky as ever," Wufei commented, crossing his arms.

Heero narrowed his eyes. "He hasn't seen you yet, so he doesn't know you're a gundam pilot. He looks like he's heading over to see Hilde and Howard anyway. We'll meet him there," Heero explained stoically as he sped up to catch up to Dustin.

"Let's hope he's going to see Hilde because he believes us now," Wufei commented. Heero grunted in agreement. Wufei smirked to himself. "Either that or he think he's got a chance with Hilde."

Heero looked over at Wufei, but didn't say anything. Wufei shrugged his shoulder and laughed, "What!?"

---------------------------

Dustin slowed down once he reached the junkyard. He expected it to be empty and devoid of life, like when Hilde had brought him there last time. The only thing he wasn't expecting was for Hilde to be sitting on the steps outside the small portable office.

Hilde was surprised at Dustin's arrival and stood up, dusting her behind to remove the dust and dirt she may have sat on. "Duo!" She called out, smiling. She ran over to Dustin's car as he parked out the front of the portable office.

"I still don't know how I feel about you calling me that," Dustin said as he got out of the convertible. He grabbed his backpack and turned to face Hilde. "I came back because I- Mmph!" Dustin was cut short by Hilde leaping onto him and giving him a big hug.

"So you believe me now!?" Hilde asked, nuzzling her face into Dustin's shoulder. "Do you realise now that you're Duo Maxwell?"

Dustin pushed Hilde off him carefully, to try not offend the girl. "I came back because even though I may start to believe it, I still have some questions that need answering," Dustin explained. He began to rummage through his backpack to show Hilde the black notebook when the mysterious black jeep pulled up next to them.

"Who are these guys?" He asked Hilde.

As Hilde was answering, the two gundam pilots exited the jeep and walked up to Dustin. "That's Wufei Chang, pilot zero five, and you already know Heero," Hilde explained. Heero extended his hand towards Dustin for Dustin to shake it.

Dustin looked at Heero's hand nervously for a split second, remembering that his mother had told him that Heero was the reason for his 'accident'. 'But I'm here to set things straight, so what's the harm in shaking this guy's hand, eh? What if mum was wrong?' Dustin thought to himself as he extended is own hand to Heero's and shook hands with the Japanese guy.

After they shook hands, Wufei extended his hand towards Dustin. "Glad you're back, Duo," Wufei said as they shook hands.

Dustin smiled nervously. 'Um, okay. Good to be back I guess..'

Hilde was positively beaming. "Come on guys!" She squealed. "Let's all go relax inside! I'm sure we've all got a lot to talk about!"

The three gundam pilots nodded and they all made their way into the underground hanger.

Soon after the four of them entered the portable office, the sound of leather-clad boots walking on gravel could be heard. The trespasser had followed Dustin when he left his home to see Hilde. They had worried about the recent events surrounding Dustin and decided to keep an eye on him, under the order of Treize himself.

"What are you doing with Heero Yuy and Wufei Chang," the man said huskily to himself. "Something's not right here. Even Treize was vague with his suspicions of Dustin when I asked him."

----------------------

Heero was the last to enter the hatch in the ground of the portable office. As he was about to step into the hatch, something had caught his eye. He quickly looked out the window, but when he looked out at the entrance of the junkyard, there was nothing there. 'I could have sworn I'd just seen someone with long blonde hair out there,' Heero thought to himself.

"Heero!" Wufei called out. "Something wrong?"

Heero dismissed the blonde figure in the corner of his eye as paranoia and replied to Wufei, "It's nothing." Heero then proceeded to enter the hatch and join the others in the underground hanger.

------------------

_AC 195_

Heero woke during the night. He was back at the apartment he shared with Duo. It wasn't uncommon for Heero to have nightmares during the night. The Japanese boy threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, figuring that getting a glass of water might help his restlessness.

Heero didn't bother turning on the lights because he felt it unnecessary, as he already knew the layout of the apartment in the dark. However, Heero had been known to stubb his toe on rogue items that Duo tended to leave around the apartment. Thankfully this was one of Duo's cleaner days.

As Heero reached the kitchen, he saw a dull light shining from the living room. Heero walked across to the kitchen and towards the living room to investigate. This time, Heero turned on the light as he reached the doorway to the living room. On the coffee table sat Duo's laptop, open and scrolling through numerous files. Heero took a closer look at the screen. It looked like Duo had set it to search for particular things, namely boys born between AC178 and AC180 in the L2 colony.

Heero wanted to sit down on the couch to read more into what Duo was doing, but the braided-wonder was fast asleep on said couch. Duo was lying on his stomach, his face looked out towards the laptop, with his arm draped over the side of the couch. 'He fell asleep while the laptop was running its search,' Heero said to himself.

Heero had no idea what Duo was up to, but taking it upon himself a few times to look through Duo's notebook, Heero knew that Duo desperately sought out his own past. Even Heero and Trowa had admitted to wanting to know about their own pasts and parents. But Duo was the only one who actually went out there and looked for answers.

Duo must've sensed that someone was standing over him. He groaned as his eyes opened slowly. He squinted because his eyes were still getting used to the light that Heero had turned on. "Heero?" Duo mumbled, still waking up. "What are ya doing?"

Heero looked down at the sleepy American. "I saw the light from your laptop on, and I came to investigate," Heero explained.

Duo, realising what he was doing before he fell asleep, shot up off the couch. He tried to leap for his laptop, but Heero blocked Duo's path. "Out of my way, Heero!" Duo said, trying to push Heero out of the way so he can close the laptop, but Heero wouldn't budge.

"Why are you trying to hide it?"

Duo's eyes widened. "You looked at what I was doing!?" Duo grabbed Heero by the shoulders and shook the shorter guy. "You wont even let me within 2 feet of _your_ laptop and you looked at _mine_?!"

"What's the big deal?" Heero said bluntly. He didn't understand why Duo was going ape over the laptop and trying to hide it.

"It's private, Heero!" Duo said, side-stepping around Heero to grab his laptop. Duo closed it and walked out of the room.

Duo huffed as he entered his bedroom. He placed his laptop on his desk and opened it so it can continue its search for his past. Duo flopped face first on his bed. 'What am I going to do if I find my parents? What am I going to do if I don't?' He thought to himself. Duo sighed, "All I ever wanted was a family.."

--------------------------------

Hilde handed out tea and coffees to the Gundam pilots and Howard before sitting down herself with them in the small mess hall.

"Firstly," Dustin announced, "I'm sorry for storming out last time, but you gotta understand this is a lot to take in right now. And honestly," Dustin continued as he pulled out the black notebook Hilde had given him. "I didn't believe any of it until I saw this," Dustin explained, opening the notebook, showing the others the picture of Duo and Hilde eating ice-creams in the park.

Heero and Wufei leaned in closer to get a look at the picture. They'd both never seen it as Duo was very protective of his black notebook. Heero had managed to skim a few pages of it while Duo was asleep on occasions, but this photo must have been knew, for Heero not to have seen it.

"When I saw that, I figured that the chances of me having a twin out there are slim. And the way I can't remember things before two years ago is consistent with the explosion in the Sanc Kingdom." Dustin explained, putting the notebook away.

"So you believe us now?" Hilde asked. "You believe us when we say you're Duo Maxwell?"

Dustin paused for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. It all makes sense."

Howard slapped his knee in excitement. "Well welcome back, buckaroo! 'Bout time you came back to our side! I'll go-"

Dustin raised his hand for Howard to quiet down. "I never said I was on your side or fighting with you all," He explained. He was unsure what kinds of response it was going to rile out of the others, but it was the truth. "I've been cared for by Lady Une for the last two years. She's the only mother I've ever know. And from what I've read in this stupid notebook," Dustin said, throwing the notebook at the couch across from him, which also happened to be where Heero was sitting, "Duo Maxwell is an orphan with no family, living a fucked up life."

Hilde moved over so that she was sitting right next to Dustin. She placed her hand atop of his. She looked into Dustin's eyes and said softly, "But we're your family, Duo.."

Dustin removed his hand from Hilde's. Hilde was shocked at how her best friend had pushed her away with a simple removal of his hand and tears began to well up in her eyes. "Well, you may not remember it, but _we_ can!" She shouted at him and got up off the couch. She sat down next to Wufei instead and wiped her eyes.

Heero picked up the black notebook that was thrown at him and flicked through it. "On one of your missions, you went back to the L2 colony. When you got back, you had a disk with information about birth, death and adoption records for the population on L2 and you were trying to find something about yourself and your family in those records," Heero explained.

Dustin, still feeling guilty for being so rude to Hilde, looked quizzingly at Heero. "And?"

Heero wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do to tell Duo the truth, but he figured that Duo needed to hear it. "You never found anything on your family. The L2 colony back then was worse than it is now, and it was so poverty stricken before the plague that women were giving birth to babies in the street because they were too poor to go to hospital. So there wouldn't have been records on everyone there."

Dustin leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He looked down at the floor. "So If I decide to be Duo Maxwell again, I'll be an orphan again."

Hilde, still mad, stood up at Dustin's comment. "What do you mean, _if you decide_?! You don't have a choice in it, Duo!!" She stomped over to him. "You _are_ Duo Maxwell! Gundam pilot zero two! Enemy of Oz! Enemy of Treize and Lady Une!"

Dustin stood up with a fierce look in his eyes. "Don't talk about my mother like that!" Hilde's words had offended him greatly.

This time, Wufei decided to butt in. "She's not your mother, baka!"

Dusin pointed his finger at Wufei. "She's the closest thing to family I have!" Dustin yelled furiously. "And I'm not going to betray the people that looked after me these last two years!"

Now, even Heero was standing up. "They've brainwashed you, Duo."

Dustin turned to Heero, "Stop calling me that!" Dustin yelled.

Suddenly, red lights flashed and the loud emergency siren rang. "We're under attack!" Howard called out before running out of the mess hall. The others were close behind, wanting to see how they'd been discovered and who was attacking them.

The ground shook as a blast from above ground hit. "How'd they find us!?" Hilde yelled. They all ran over to a panel of monitors that showed security footage of what was happening above ground.

"They're OZ suits alright," Howard stated. "Looks like a couple of Taurus suits and.. The Epyon!" Howard exclaimed, turning to look at the gundam pilots. "We're stuffed now if you boys don't get out there!"

Heero and Wufei instantly ran off towards their gundams. Heero, reaching his, called out to Dustin. "Are ya coming?!"

Hilde, who was still standing at the panel of monitors with Dustin and Howard, explained, "Your gundam's pretty much completed, Duo."

Dustin stood there, frozen. How could he attack OZ soldiers? They stood for the very thing that he had been led to believe in for in the last two years. If he got in the gundam Deathscythe now, there's be no turning back.

Not to mention the Epyon was out there. That meant Zechs was out there. How could Dustin attack his best friend?

"Which side am I on?" Dustin asked himself.

------------------------

**Author's notes:** MWHAHHAH! Omg! Talk about cliffhanger! And I'll be sure to write the next chapter in a way that it'll make you wanna review just to vent your opinions at me! Flame away! I don't care!!! Ahha but seriously, lemme know what ya'll think! I want opinions! Tell me what you wanna see! What you wanna see less of, etc!


	9. ch9: betrayal of an old friend

**Author's notes:** Damn! It's been a LONG time since I updated! Let's just say I got my muse back! Hope ya'll like this chapter and lemme know whatchas think (by reviewing!)!

**Ch9: betrayal of an old friend**

Dustin, still unsure of what side he was fighting on, figured he'd make a decision as he ran over to his Deathscythe. The only thing was, he hadn't made a decision by the time he got into the cockpit. Dustin walked his fingers over the necessary buttons on the console to start up the Gundam. It all felt so natural to him to be sitting in the cockpit of the Deathscythe. It almost felt like he was being reaquainted with an old friend. But he had more pressing matters to deal with. 'Shit!' Dustin thought to himself. 'Now what?'

The Shenlong and Wing Zero were already on the surface and starting to fight. Surprisingly, the Taurus suits were putting up quite a fight, considering they were most likely mobile dolls. Dustin was torn about what to do. Should he abandon everyone that he knows and loves?

"I cant do that.." Dustin said to himself. He scanned the radio signals to find the Epyon. "Ah! Got him!" Dustin smiled to himself. He typed in a message and sent it to the Epyon. "Alright, time to escape. I only hope that Zechs reads it!" Dustin said to himself as he grabbed the controls of the Deathscythe.

-----------------

Zechs faught with both the Wing Zero and the Shenlong. The mobile suits were defending him. They'd been programmed to protect him and surprisingly, the two gundam pilots hadn't been able to defeat the mobile suits as quickly as usual.

_Beep beep_

Zechs noticed a message being sent to him through the radio signal. Still trying to keep his eye on the battle in front of him, Zechs used one hand to open the message.

_It's Dustin. I'm in the gundam Deathscythe. Don't attack._

"What the fu.." Zechs said aloud as he read the message. He was unable to finish the sentence when he noticed that behind the Wing Zero and Shenlong, the Gundam Deathscythe rising up from the hanger below and flew away from them.

"Duo!! You IDIOT!!!" Wufei yelled over the radio. "TRAITOOOORRR!!"

"I'm sorry, Wufei." Dustin felt like he'd just betrayed his friends when he watched the image of the battle below get smaller. He decided to fly the Deathscythe somewhere safe. He didn't really want to take it to his mother.. yet. He needed to think things through.

"I can't be expected to decide on what side to fight for so quickly!" Dustin yelled aloud. "I gotta talk to Zechs. He'll know what to do."

Dustin realised mid-flight that his gundam has stealth capabilities and hid the gundam someplace he believed to be safe.

---------------

Dustin, having left his car at the scrapyard, Dustin was forced to catch public transport back home. By the time he'd reached home, two hours had passed. Dustin walked up to the large silver gates of the mansion he lived in. Once the two Oz troops that were guarding the gate recognised Dustin, they ran up to him.

"Mr. Matthews!" One of the guards exclaimed as they ran towards him. "Colonel Treize has been looking everywhere for you!"

"He has?" Dustin asked. "Why?"

The second troop explained, "Something about a battle with two gundam pilots. Everyone thinks you've been taken hostage by the gundam pilots."

"Really?!" Dustin exclaimed. He wondered if Zechs told anyone about him taking the Deathscythe. "Why would they think I've been taken hostage?"

The first trooper shrugged. "Not sure. We haven't really heard anything else. But Lady Une is inside and asked us to let her know if you arrive."

Dustin nodded. "Let her know. I'll walk in while you do that."

The officers nodded. One opened the front gate for Dustin by pressing the button that activates it, while the second officer radio'd in that Dustin was home.

---------------

Dustin felt like his walk up the paved driveway was taking longer than usual. He was dreading the talk he was going to have with his mother. "I wasn't planning on talking to her about it right now, but I guess I'll have to. I need some answers."

As Dustin got closer to the house, the front door opened. "Dustin!" Lady Une called out as she ran out to greet Dustin. Then she did something that Dustin hadn't seen her do since he was in hospital 2 years ago. She ran up to him and gave him a hug. Dustin was left dumbfounded as he nervously put an arm around his mum. "I was so worried about you!"

"Mum," Dustin wriggled free of his mother's hug and put his hands on her arms. "We need to talk."

Une nodded and she led Dustin inside the mansion.

Outside in the security booth, where the two troopers were stationed at the front gate, one of the troopers was dialling Treize's number. "Hello, Mr. Treize?… Yes.. As ordered, I've rung to inform you that Dustin Matthews has arrived home only moments ago…"

----------------

_2 years ago_

"Well, Dustin," Une said as she held the door open for her new son to enter in on his crutches. "This is your home."

Dustin hobbled in slowly. He'd only just gotten the plaster casts from his legs removed and being stuck in a coma for 3 months did nothing to help his legs. His legs had gotten weak and his muscles had degenerated from not moving them for so long. As he finally got a few feet within the front door, Dustin stopped and looked in awe at his new surroundings.

"Have.. Have I always lived here?" He asked in awe. The front hallway was wide as well as long. The floors were tiled white and the walls were an off-white colour with large renaissance-style paintings on the walls. There was the stereotypical large double staircase at the back of the room that led to the upstairs rooms.

"No," Une explained. "With the war, we used to move around a lot for my work, but after your accident, I wanted to be home with you more so Mr Treize was kind enough to give us this house."

"House?!" Dustin exclaimed. "He gave us a fuck'n mansion!"

"Dustin!" Une scolded jokingly. She giggled at his profanity, but he was right. It was hardly a house, but she was extremely grateful that Treize helped her out with creating a new identity for Duo Maxwell, as well as buying this mansion for them. Sometimes she didn't know what she'd do without him.

"Sorry.. Mom.." Dustin said the last part as if he were still unsure if she were really his mother or not. "So where's my room?"

Une smiled sweetly at her new son. "Right this way.."

------------------

Lady Une led Dustin into the living room. She sat down in her large white armchair, while Dustin sat on the couch next to her. Dustin leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He clasped his hands together nervously. How was he going to approach this subject? "Mom," Dustin began, not entirely sure how to word the next question, but decided to go with the obvious approach, "Am I Duo Maxwell?"

Lady Une knew this question would pop up eventually, but deep down, she wished it wouldn't. After hearing from Treize that Zechs saw him piloting the gundam zero two, she knew that she'd have to answer some questions. Obviously, Dustin piloting a gundam, meant that one or more of the gundam pilots had found him. 'It took them 2 years, but they found him.' She had a couple of hours to prepare for this, but she still took in a sharp breath of surprise when Dustin finally asked the question 'am I Duo Maxwell?'.

Lady Une nodded in response. She couldn't bring herself to say the words though.

Dustin nodded back, finally receiving definite confirmation that he _was_ Duo Maxwell. Then came the second question that plagued Dustin's mind since he had an inkling that he's been lied to. "Why?"

Une was genuinely shocked by the question. Where to start!! She spent so long thinking about how to answer him, that Dustin asked the question again. "Why the lies? Why pretend to be my mom? Why the façade?"

Une, now being asked less general questions, she felt that she could finally give him some answers. "When you self-destructed your gundam, and your broken body was found," Une began, "I ordered for you to be looked after so that we can interrogate you once you'd recovered. But then.." Une was having trouble saying the rest without tears welling up in her eyes, "When I sat by your bandaged body and held your hand.. I started to become.. fond of you… It made me want a child of my own.. and.. I told Mr. Treize that I wanted to adopt you.." Une removed her glasses and dabbed her eyes with a napkin that she'd removed from her pocket. "When you finally woke up and didn't know who you were.." Une had, by now, burst out into tears, "I was ecstatic because I would be able to care for you without any problems about you remembering being a gundam pilot.."

Dustin sat quietly and listened to what his mother for the last 2 years had said. He stood up from the couch and paced around the room, thinking about what she'd just said. He tried to understand where she was coming from, but then at the same time, he didn't know what side he was supposed to be on.

"Dustin.."

Dustin turned to face his mother.

"Do you remember anything.. from before?" Une asked.

Dustin shook his head. "All I remember is you being at my bedside when I woke up in hospital. This life is all I know."

Une nodded. She was glad that he didn't remember anything, but also felt sorry for him. "I hear that you were with gundam pilots zero one and five when Zechs found you."

Dustin was surprised. Then again, at the same time he wasn't. He should have known, with his mother being so highly ranked, that information like that would have reached her pretty fast.

"Yeah, I.."

Dustin was unable to finish the sentence when he hear the front door slam open and the loud thudding of some heavy footsteps on tiled floors reaching the living room.

"Where is he!?" Zechs' voice boomed as he neared the living room. Dustin and Une looked in the direction of the doorway as Mr.Treize and Zechs entered the room. Zechs lifted his pistol out of its holster on his hip and pointed the pistol at Dustin. "You were my friend! Who's side are you on, _really_?!"

Lady Une stood up and made sure she stood in front of Dustin, blocking Zechs from potentially shooting the boy she'd called her son. "Don't you dare hurt him!" Une commanded. Dustin was so dumbfounded with all the recent information that he hardly realised the seriousness of the situation of Zechs wanting to shoot him. "Put your gun down!" Une demanded. She looked at Mr. Treize for support and for answers to why Zechs was acting this way.

"I did not take the liberties of explaining our situation to Zechs just yet," Treize explained calmly. "But now that we are all here," Treize put his left hand atop of Zechs' and lowered the pistol. "I will explain to both you.." he said looking at Zechs, "And Dustin what is going on here." Zechs did as instructed and put the pistol down. "If you please," Mr Treize instructed as he ushered Zechs to the couch next to Dustin.

Once Zechs was seated, Treize sat in the second armchair across from Lady Une and explained again what Une had just said to Dustin, only he was very calm and well spoken as he said it. Lady Une couldn't help but cry quietly on her own armchair as she had to relive the shame of what she had done. "..When Duo woke up, he didn't know who he was, or who _we_ were for that matter. With Lady growing so fond of the young man, and with his amnesia, it seemed fitting that he be given a home and a family with Lady Une."

"But," Dustin began, "Why were the files on Duo Maxwell deleted? Why the massive cover up? Why give me a different name?" Zechs too wanted to know the answers to these questions that Dustin had asked, so he listened intently.

Treize took a deep breath and leaned back in the large white armchair. "I felt it necessary to cover it all up. If the public, or even leaders within the Romefeller foundation to find out that Lady Une had adopted a gundam pilot, it would damage her career. That is also why we gave you a different name, Duo," Treize explained, looking right at Dustin.

"Don't call me that," Dustin explained. "It's… weird.."

"As you wish," Treize nodded. "So now it's time for me to ask the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Who's side are you on, Dustin? Having the knowledge that you have been lied to by the people you called family for the last two years?"

Dustin was amazed at how calmly Treize had asked him the question. It was _only_ the dreaded question that had been plaguing Dustin's mind for the last few days. "I.." Yet again Dustin had been cut off by a guard bursting into the room, his breath hard and fast, as if he'd just sprinted across the mansion.

"Excuse the intrustion. Mr. Treize, Lady Une, you have an urgent call," the guard explained. Une and Treize made their way out of the room, leaving Zechs and Dustin behind.

"So.." Zechs said nervously.

-----------------------------

"Wufei!" Hilde whispered. "Over here!" She was standing on the corner of a deserted street in the ghetto. She'd spotted Wufei running up the street and called him over. They'd agreed to meet in the general area of the ghetto, and that's what they'd done. So far it was only Hilde, Howard and Wufei who'd found their way back.

Wufei jogged across the street to where Hilde was. "Who else made it?" Wufei asked, panting from his run.

Hilde replied, "Just you, me and Howard. Where's Heero?"

Wufei looked at her confused. "He never showed up?"

Hilde shook her head. "Wasn't he with you?"

Wufei shook his head. "When we destroyed the mobile dolls, Heero managed to damage the Epyon to the point that we could escape before reinforcements arrived. We separated to go hide our gundams."

-----------------------

Zechs looked over at his friend. "I visited Duo Maxwell," Zechs said quietly.

"Huh?"

"When he.. er.. you were found alive after the battle. I came to the hospital to see if you were going to survive."

"Oh," Dustin replied, not sure how to respond.

"Of course, with all your injuries, your face and almost your whole body were bandaged up, so I never saw your face. I'd gone there because I was supposed to be the one to interrogate you if you survived," Zechs explained. The thought of interrogating his friend, made Zechs almost afraid to look at Dustin/Duo. "The next day I was told that you'd died."

Dustin leaned back on the couch. "I guess it's a good thing I lost my memory then, eh?" Dustin joked half-heartedly.

Zechs nodded. Dustin was right. Things would most certainly be different if Duo hadn't lost his memory. "So what do I start calling you now?"

Dustin shrugged. "I honestly don't know.."

"A gundam pilot.." Zechs said aloud to himself. "Under my nose this whole time.. and we were best friends.."

"_Were?_" Dustin replied, shocked. "We still _are_!"

"Sorry," Zechs apologised. "That's what I meant." Zechs stood up and started pacing up and down the room. "It's just that.. I was so surprised when Lady Une suddenly announced that she had a son, right after the battle at the Sanc Kingdom. We all believed that she'd kept hidden the fact that she had an adopted son all these years. When you came out of your coma, she told everyone that she only announced your existence because she felt guilty for not being there for you when you had your car accident and wanted to be able to care for you while you recover. She needed to explain her absences for the three months you were in a coma. I guess now, she was using it all as a way of adopting you for some reason and getting away with it without anyone knowing."

Dustin sighed. "Horray for scandals and propaganda.." he said un enthusiastically.

Zechs walked over to Dustin. He sat on the wooden coffee table directly in front of Dustin and looked into his friend's eyes. "I followed you today. To the scrapyard. That's how I knew the other gundam pilots were there and why I attacked," Zechs confessed.

Dustin's eyes widened. "You followed me!?" He stood up. "Why!?"

"Treize asked me to. He told me he was worried that you were in trouble and asked me to keep an eye on you. I didn't know you'd be hanging around with two gundam pilots and an ex OZ soldier!" Zechs replied. He couldn't help but raise his voice at the end there.

"I wasn't _hanging around_ with them," Dustin explained. "They approached me and I.. went there to get some answers.." Dustin explained.

Zechs nodded. It made sense.. sort of. If the gundam pilots had found out that Dustin Matthews was their long lost friend, of course they would approach him and try to turn them onto their side. The only thing was, what lies did they feed Dustin?

"You know that the gundam pilots are enemies of Oz?" Zechs asked quietly.

Dustin nodded. "It's common knowledge, Zechs."

Zechs took in a deep breath. He had so much information to digest and although he understood that figureheads are known for covering up things, Zechs was pissed off that he too was left out of the loop when it came to Duo Maxwell. "I need to know something. I want you to answer the question Mr Treize asked you before."

"Hmm?"

"Who's side are you on?"

Dustin felt his heart skip a beat and his chest felt heavy. It was the same dilemma he felt when he got into the Deathscythe only hours ago- who's side _was_ he on?! And now Dustin/Duo was forced to choose. Was he the gundam pilot Duo Maxwell or the OZ soldier Dustin Matthews?

"Yours," he answered.

Zechs nodded at Dustin's response. "I want you to know, that although we are friends, if you choose to fight alongside the gundams, I wont be able to protect you in battle," Zechs said with all seriousness.

"You've been like an older brother to me, Zechs. But I never expected you to protect me," Dustin smiled.

Zechs nodded and smirked back. "I'm being serious, Dustin."

Dustin smiled and nodded back. "You have nothing to worry about."

Just then, Une and Treize walked back into the room. Zechs and Dustin turned their attentions over to them. "What happened?" Dustin asked.

"Heero Yuy was captured half an hour ago, along with his gundam," Lady Une replied. "We're going over to the military base now to interrogate him."

Dustin stood up. "I'm coming with you."

---------------

**author's notes: **DUM DUM DAAAAAAHH!! Ohh! What's going to happen when they go see the newly captured Heero!? Will Duo finally return to the side of good? Where are the other 3 gundam pilots in this time of need? How did Heero get captured so easily?

Things are not as they seem… Next chapter will bring a whole new spin on the saga!


	10. ch10: Looks can be deceiving

**Ch10: looks can be deceiving..**

Heero stared at the grey concrete floor. The room was similar to the holding cell he'd been thrown in when he was captured with Duo only days after meeting the braided wonder. That's the name Heero had secretly been calling Duo since Duo rescued him from the clutches of Sally Po by making the two of them jump off the 80th storey building. However, Heero would never say to anyone aloud that he'd nicknamed Duo as the 'braided wonder'. And now the American guy had his braid lopped off, so it doesn't really apply.

Heero sighed. They'd kept him alone in the dark cell for a couple of hours now. The room, made of concrete was only two metres by three metres. The lights were turned off, but a small beam of light shone in from under the door. His hands were handcuffed behind him as he sat crossed legged on the floor.

'I hope the others are ready,' Heero thought to himself. '..Considering we didn't have much time.'

---------------------------

It took much debating on Dustin's part for Une and Treize to allow him to accompany them and Zechs to the military base that Heero was being held in. Dustin assured them that he was on their side and just wanted to talk to Heero. He walked down the long grey corridors of the base with Zechs on one side of him, and Une on the other. Dustin felt like maybe, with the truth being out in the open, the others didn't trust him.

'They probably don't even know they're doing it,' Dustin thought to himself. 'It's not my fault I'm the enemy.. I mean _was_ the enemy.. ..Are they scared I'll turn on them!?' Dustin looked over at Zechs and then Une in the corner of his eye. They didn't know he was eyeing them suspiciously. 'What's going to happen now? They lied to me this whole time, with the exception of Zechs, and now I have to buy _their_ trust?!'

A trooper led the way down the corridors ahead of Treize, Zechs, Une and Dustin. He led them to the cell that Heero Yuy was being held in. "What shall we do with him, sir?" The trooper asked Treize.

"Take him to the interrogation room. We'll be there shortly," Treize instructed. The trooper saluted to Treize and ran off to go get reinforcements. Heero Yuy was not a force to be reckoned with alone. Treize turned to the others. "Come. Let's go to the observation room," He instructed. They were to wait in the 'secret' room that was found on the other side of the mirror that covered one wall in the interrogation room.

Then they got in there, Une and Treize sat themselves down at the desk that faced the one-way mirror, leaving Zechs and Dustin (the lower ranking officers) to stand. 'What am I going to do now?' Dustin thought to himself. He'd begun to bite his fingernail on his right thumb. 'I wanted to know the truth.. and now that I do, I feel like I'm not meant to be here. I can't just abandon my mother. She's cared for me and who would do that for kicks. She must have really loved me like a son to do that. But then why do Heero, Hilde and that Wufei guy hate her and Oz so much?' Dustin thought to himself. 'Am I on the wrong side? Or are they on the wrong side?'

Dustin was so deep in thought that he didn't realise that Heero Yuy was being escorted in by four armed guards. His hands were still bound, and he was being led in with one guard standing behind him using a long pole with a noose on the end that was wrapped around Heero's neck. They were taking all precautions to make sure that Heero didn't escape or attack the guards.

"Dustin," Zechs said, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder. "You okay?"

Dustin came out of his daze and looked at his friend. He let out a goofy smile and replied, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Zechs, not truly believing Dustin, shrugged and returned his gaze to the sight of the Japanese pilot being handcuffed to the chair.

Dustin walked over to the glass. "I want to go in there…" He said aloud, looking over at Une and Treize. "..Alone," He requested. Dustin was so determined to go in there and get some answers, that he demanded to go in there, and forgot to ask for permission from his superiors.

Before Une could say anything, Dustin walked over to the door and opened it. Once the door was open, Une didn't call out to him because then it'd let Heero know who was sitting behind the glass. Dustin winked at his mother to let her know everything was okay, and closed the door behind him as he entered the interrogation room.

--------------------

"Trowa? You there? Over."

Trowa stopped crawling and reached for the walkie-talkie in his back pocket. "I'm here. Over."

"Are you in yet?"

"Almost. Although stealth was always Duo's strong-suit."

"Let us know when you are in position."

"Will do. Over." Trowa clipped the walkie talkie onto the back of his belt and pulled out a screwdriver. He looked over his shoulder to make sure no-one could see him. It was dark, and with his black attire, he was almost invisible against the dark concrete wall. He crawled over to the large air vent that was placed on the concrete wall, a few inches from the ground. He looked inside. The coast was clear. Just below the inside of the vent was an abandoned office. He quietly but quickly unscrewed the hinges that held down the vent and quietly pulled the grated metal out of it's hole in the wall.

Trowa reached for his walkie talkie. "I'm going in. Begin your part in five minutes, even if you don't hear from me."

-------------

Heero looked over at the door that had just opened. His eyes widened at the sight of who had just walked in to greet him. "Duo?"

His friend sat himself down opposite Heero at the large steel table. "Hi Heero."

Heero couldn't believe his eyes. 'They're _letting_ Duo come in here and talk to me? I wonder what their plan is. Maybe they don't know that he know's that he's Duo Maxwell?' Heero had to know. "Did they _let_ you come in here? Or don't they know?"

Dustin smirked. "They know. They didn't get much of a say in it coz I kinda stormed in here without permission," he replied. "But I needed to get some answers out of you."

Heero nodded. He then looked over at the one-way mirror. All he could see was his own reflection, but he knew that there'd be someone on the other side of it. "Who's on the other side, watching us?"

Dustin was hesitant to reply at first, but he figured that Heero would have figured out eventually. "Zechs, Mr. Treize and my mother."

Behind the glass, Zechs slapped himself on the forehead. "That idiot."

Heero raised an eyebrow. "She's not your mother," he stated bluntly.

Dustin nodded. "I know." He leaned forward on the table and crossed his arms on the cool smooth surface. "We had a heart to heat chat about it all. I know the whole story."

Heero snorted at what Dustin had said. "You can't seriously believe everything they told you, can you? They're the enemy, Duo!" Heero grumbled. "They'll do anything to keep you on their side!" Heero couldn't help but yell. He was getting frustrated and just wanted to knock some sense into his friend.

"Like I said before, they're my family now."

Heero needed to try something different. He needed a new approach to get Duo back onto his side. Debating over who was the enemy was becoming old and fast. It wasn't the topic that was going to win Duo over. "Do you still wear your cross? I noticed it hanging in your car when we met at your college."

Dustin shook his head. He remembered leaving it on his desk after realising it matched the one in Duo Maxwell's sketchbook. "I have it but not on me," Dustin replied. "Why?"

"Tell me, honestly. Do you believe in God?"

Dustin was genuinely surprised by the question. "Um, well that's a stupid question, but okay.." Dustin commented. "I guess I'd have to say that after all the shit I've been through, I'd have to say that I believe in God, but I absolutely hate the fucker! I wouldn't wish this whole fiasco on my worst enemy!" Dustin replied without even thinking about it.

Heero let out a tiny smile. It was the most human he'd ever seemed to the American, if only Duo had remembered what a robot Heero used to act like. "I asked you the exact same question just before you died two years ago. And you want to know what you answered?"

Dustin leaned back in his chair. "Shoot."

"You said the exact same thing."

Dustin's eyes widened. He was surprised but at the same time, who cares? "And.. your point?"

"My point," Heero began, "Is that you're still the Duo Maxwell we all know and love. You haven't changed. You've just forgotten the life that you loved. Tell me you don't still love the stealth missions, piloting a mobile suit and the rush you get from battle."

Dustin stood up. "This is stupid!" Was all he could think of to say. Heero was right. When Duo was sent on his first few stealth missions, he wondered why he loved them so much. It all came so natural to him that it was scary. The first time he piloted a mobile suit after his accident, everything came so natural to him that he felt he'd been doing it for years. He loved the missions and hated the easy life at school.

"If the only thing keeping you with Oz is the idea of a family," Heero said softly, "Then let me tell you now that you've got a family waiting for you with us. You have four brothers and a girl out there who's been wanting you to ask her out for almost four years now."

Dustin's eyes began to water at those words. "I.. I had a family?" Suddenly, subconsciously his views were starting to change. He didn't want to lose his family, but hearing that he was originally a gundam pilot made Dustin realise things about himself that he only had dreams about in the last 2 years.

Behind the glass, Treize stood up so fast that the sound of his chair skidding on the cold hard floor could be heard from the interrogation room. "He's heard too much," Treize said aloud. He turned to his comrade and commanded, "Zechs, get him out of there NOW!"

Zechs nodded and ran over to the door. As soon as he opened it, a large explosion could be heard, stopping Zechs in his tracks. The glass from the mirror had shattered and dust had filled the room. Everyone put their arms up to shield their faces from the dust and glass.

-----------------------

"Is everybody alright?!" Treize called out. Une and Zechs coughed out that they were all okay through the massive dust and smoke that filled the room.

Dustin rubbed his eyes, trying to comprehend what had just happened. The large 'boom', meant there was an explosion. The dust and smoke meant that the explosion was close.. _real_ close.

"Heero!" A foreign voice called out. "Where are you?!"

Dustin tried to feel his way around. The blast had blown him down onto the floor. As he felt his way around, the table that was once between himself and Heero was now gone, probably blown across the room.

"Over here!" Heero called out to the intruder. Dustin could hear footsteps crunching their way through the rubble and broken glass. "Where's Duo?" Heero asked.

Dustin couldn't help reply, "Over here," he coughed as the smoke tickled his throat. Dustin couldn't open his eyes because of the smoke and he couldn't do much more than wonder around slowly, trying to feel his surroundings.

"Heero," the foreign voice said, "Quatre and Wufei are waiting outside. We've got to go."

Heero grunted and the sound of his shackles hitting the floor were heard. "Thanks," he said to the mystery intruder. "But we've got to find Duo first!"

Dustin was speechless. He didn't know what to say. This was all sounding like a rescue mission for Heero, but Heero desperately wanted Dustin to go with them. He was caught off guard when he felt a hand grab his forearm. "Who's there!" Dustin called out.

"It's Trowa, Duo. We're getting you out of here."

Dustin wasn't sure what to do. His thoughts of which side he was meant to be on came back. If he went with them, he would really be picking sides. He needed answers though.

"Please, Duo," Heero said. "You belong with us."

Dustin, feeling Trowa's arm pulling him towards the gaping hole in the wall that the explosion had made, Dustin pulled back to stop himself from being pulled away. "I belong here," Dustin replied.

Trowa, as well as feeling that Duo was pulling away, could see that Duo had a confused look on his face. Trowa, knowing that the explosion would cause so much smoke and dust, Trowa borrowed Quatre's goggles, which made it easier for him to move around.

"Don't worry. We can give you the answers you need. We're your friends, not enemies," Trowa explained calmly. "But we need to go. Quatre's waiting outside in his jeep. Wufei's outside in his gundam. He can only hold off the mobile dolls for so long."

Back in the adjoining room, Lady Une could hear everything being said to her son. The gundam pilots were about to take Dustin with them. If they did that then she'd probably never see her son ever again. Even though Duo had been her son for only 2 years now, she had grown to love him as if he were her own. She couldn't let that go so easily.

"DUO!!" Une yelled. "Don't go, I beg you!"

Trowa yanked Dustin's arm, "You see?" Trowa commented. "Even Lady Une has started to call you by your real name. She knows that you belong with us."

Heero also butt in, "Just come with us, hear what we have to say and we'll let you leave if you want to."

Dustin thought about it. It sounded like a good offer. He could leave if he didn't believe them. "Okay," Dustin replied. "Let's go."

Trowa smiled, even though the other two boys couldn't really see it, and led them both out of the room and down the hall.

Lady Une could hear the trudging of their footsteps leaving the room. "Duo!? DUOOOO!!!" She called out to him. "You're my son!!" She called out, falling to her knees. "I don't want you to go.." Lady Une said quietly, feeling defeated. She could feel her shins had been cut from the debris on the ground as she dropped to her knees. "Duo.."

Lady Une felt a hand on her shoulder and then arms wrapping themselves around her. Despite the smell of smoke and ash, Lady Une could still smell the scent of Treize's cologne as he picked Lady Une up. She automatically wrapped her hands around his neck.

Then the brown-haired man reassured her in his deep, calm voice, "We'll get him back. I promise."

-----------------

The words of Lady Une echoed out in the corridor. The smoke from the explosion cleared up as the three boys ran down the corridor outside the interrogation room, making it easier for Heero and Dustin to see where they were going.

"Where are all the guards?" Dustin asked, noticing the corridor was suddenly empty, when only ten minutes ago, it was bustling with Oz troops.

Trowa replied, "Wufei and Quatre are handling them outside. The ones on the inside, I handled myself."

Heero turned to his old friend. "The moment we get out of here, we'll give you the answers you wanted."

------------------------------

_3 years ago_

"Heero?"

Heero kept typing away at his laptop. Duo would realise eventually that he was at the kitchen table using his laptop.

"HEEEEEeeeeeeeeeero!?"

Heero rolled his eyes, ignored Duo and kept typing away.

Back at the front door, Duo had stuck his head in the front door, listening to see if Heero was home. Relieved that his fellow gundam pilot wasn't home, Duo turned around to face his unwelcomed 'guest' in the hallway. "See!?" Duo whispered, "He's not here," Duo said harshly. He waved his hand at the girl, dismissively, "So go home!"

"No," said the brown-haired girl, 'I think I'll go in and wait for him to come back."

And with that, the young woman pushed past Duo and walked into the apartment that Duo and Heero shared. Duo called out after her, "RELENA!"

Duo ran around Relena and blocked her path. "If you're going to stay here, then you go to the kitchen, make some tea- or whatever it is you rich folk have, and _wait there!_" Duo commanded. Relena tried to protest but Duo grabber her by the shoulders and led her to the kitchen. "Don't move! I'll be right back," Duo explained. As he walked out of the kitchen, he called out to her, "And don't even think about stealing Heero's mug!"

Duo walked over to Heero's bedroom to see if Heero was there. No Heero. Duo then walked into the living room and saw Heero's laptop on, and sitting on the coffee table by itself. Heero never left his laptop unattended.. _never_.. "Heero?" Duo whispered.

It was then that Heero's head popped out from behind the large wooden TV cabinet.

"Oh there you are!" Duo laughed quietly. "..What are you doing?"

Heero stared bluntly at Duo. "I heard you call out Relena's name!" Heero whispered back. "What is she _doing_ here?!"

Duo looked over his shoulder to see if Relena was still in the kitchen. Thankfully she hadn't followed him into the living room. He then turned back to Heero. "I don't know! She was standing out the front door, trying to pick the lock when I got here!"

Heero came out from behind the cabinet and walked over to his laptop. "Well get rid of her!" Heero ordered.

"How?!"

"I don't know!" Heero whined. Duo was amazed how that girl slash stalker could insight so much fear and annoyance in the stoic guy. "I'm more concerned with how am I going to get out of here without her noticing."

"Heero!!" Relena squealed.

"Oh crap!" Duo muttered to himself as he realised that Relena had disobeyed his orders and left the kitchen to see what Duo was doing in the living room. Duo turned around and looked at the wide-eyes girl. "_What_ did I tell you?"

Relena shrugged him off and walked over to Heero. "Heero! I've been looking for you _everywhere!_" She squealed as she hugged the poor Japanese guy.

"More like _stalking_ him!" Duo muttered under his breath.

Relena released her hold on Heero, who didn't know how to react to Relena being all over him. "Oh Heero!" Relena exclaimed. "I've been waiting for you to ask me out!"

Both Heero and Duo looked at her, shocked and speechless. 'This girl's _nuts!_' Duo thought to himself.

But Relena was on a roll. "Oh, I know that with this stupid war going on, it'd be too hard to maintain a stable relationship, but with the love we have for each other, I think we can make this work!"

Duo scoffed. Heero was standing there, dumbfounded. Duo had a hard enough time getting Heero to say his 'please' and 'thankyou's, how was Relena going to get Heero to profess a love for her that he doesn't have! And Heero wasn't making any moves to get Relena off him, unsure of how Relena would react. 'Looks like _I_ have to do something or she'll never get off the poor guy!' Duo thought to himself.

"Sorry, Relena.." Duo said, walking over to Relena and removing her hands from Heero's shoulders. "But Heero wont be professing his love to you anytime soon."

"Oh?" Relena asked, "And why not?"

Duo then put an arm around Heero's shoulders and smiled proudly. "Because we're lovers!"

Heero's body stiffened at Duo's response.

Relena raised an eyebrow at Heero's reaction. "Funny.. Heero doesn't seem to think so.."

Duo smiled and squeezed Heero tighter, "He's just freaked out because I outed him!" Duo turned to Heero, "Aren't ya, Heero?"

Heero gulped and nodded nervously, figuring it's easier to play along.

Relena crossed her arms, still not convinced. "Okay then," She said coyly. "If you two are 'lovers', then kiss."

This time both Heero and Duo stiffened. "Say what?"

"I said kiss."

"Er.." Duo replied, "We don't like to express our love publicly.. You understand.. Not many people would understand if we did."

Heero nodded in agreement. Relena, being the pain in the ass that she was, was still not convinced. 'Well, I'm not leaving here until I'm convinced.. And I wont be convinced until you two kiss!"

Duo huffed, "Fine!"

Heero's eyes widened, visually bothered by what was about to happen.

Duo, still holding Heero's shoulders, turned the Japanese boy to face him. The two boys looked at each other nervously for a moment before moving slowly.. towards each other.. mere inches from touching each other's lips..

"ARGH!" Heero called out as he pulled away.

"OH thank God!" Duo exclaimed, relieved that he hadn't kissed Heero.

"I knew it!" Relena called out.

"Crap on a stick!" Duo called out.

"Get out!" Heero called out, pointing to the door.

"Huh?" Both Relena and Duo looked at Heero, confused.

Heero huffed. "Relena, get out!" He yelled. "Duo, you go to my room," Heero replied.

Duo wondered for a moment if Heero had said it wrong and really meant for Duo to go to his _own_ room..

"Heero?" Relena said softly, taking a step closer to Heero. But Heero had had enough.

"Relena," He said to her softly in his deep, gruff voice. "Get out so I can have a talk to.. my boyfriend in private."

"So you two really are..?"

"Yeah."

"Okay.. I guess I'll leave you two to be together," Relena said, still unsure of what was going on. If Heero _was_ lying, he was pretty convincing. She turned to Duo, "If you break his heart, you're going to have to answer to _me_!" She stated before leaving the apartment.

As soon as the door closed behind Relena, Duo started laughing so had that he fell on the floor, grabbing at his sides. "Damn, Heero!" Duo laughed. "You were so convincing, you almost had _me_ believing!"

The stoic boy let out the tiniest hint of a smile. "I wanted her to know that I can't ever be with her. Sometimes you need to go to extremes to get what you want."

* * *

**Author's notes:** Oh, I laughed so hard writing that last part!!! The pretending to be lovers thing with Heero and Duo made me laugh so hard when I first thought of it! I figured it can be my ohmage to all the yaoi fans out there! (Since this is my 1st non-yaoi story). You may also have noticed I keep swapping between using 'duo' and 'dustin' in sentences earlier on. I'm trying to portray the transition our favourite American is going through. When Duo/Dustin _really_ decides what side he's on, then I'll stick to one name. 


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